Previous chapter here.
* * *
* * *
"You're not seriously going, are you?" Lawrence asked his boss, who was in the process of selecting clothes for the party.
"Of course I am. This is an opportunity with all pros and no cons!"
"Allow me to disagree. The cons are that you'll be surrounded by dangerous criminals, she's most likely leading you into a trap because you obviously can't trust her, and it's a night wasted on something other than villany. The pros are that you get to rub yourself against your waifu for a few hours."
"You think I haven't thought this through? Ever since she told me the time and location of this party I've worked hard to learn the layout of the place, hidden secrets, who will be attending, what common events occur in the area around that time, etc. Just like I always do, I've put extensive planning into this and taken a number of precautions. First of all, I'll be bringing these babies with me."
Willcraft gestured to the three Cloak Drones that were finished at the moment, with a worker robot next to them in the process of putting together the fourth.
"You really need to get more of those workers if you want to have thousands of those things within the next century," Lawrence pointed out.
"I will, I will... What matters right now is that I will have three undetectable, heavily armed eyes at my back. And I do intend to use them... I have plans for tonight. Which reminds me... I have some instructions for you..."
* * *
A few hours later, Willcraft showed up at the meeting spot that Luna had given him. He had finally settled on wearing what he always wore. After all, his research had told him that many villains attending were going to show up in their traditional outfit. And he was properly dressed by default, so win-win.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Luna, wearing a black dress and a Victorian mask covering her face, her hair flowing freely rather than being tied into a ponytail as usual.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
"I'm ready for whatever involves you in that outfit. Hot damn, girl, you're looking stunning in that dress!"
"Well, just keep yourself together and I won't have to stun you for real."
"Going for the easy ones tonight, huh?"
"Let's just go."
They approached the gate of the fence that served as the first line of defense for the huge mansion in which the party was to be held, and Willcraft pulled out his invitation from his chest pocket and held it up to the camera, causing the gate to open for long enough for them to enter.
"Wanna know how I got this invitation?" Willcraft asked.
"You applied with your criminal record like everyone else?" Luna guessed.
"Yes. I have one of those. And it's lookin' good. It's so exciting. ...Just wanted to brag a little, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes."
"I snap people's necks for a living."
"In the name of good."
"Shut up, we're at the door now."
Luna knocked on the door, and a colossal man, probably with superpowers, opened the door.
"Willcraft with lady company," Willcraft identified himself, empathizing the "lady company" part.
The man grunted and stepped out of their way. They walked inside, and after walking through a surprisingly large hallway they found themselves in a far larger hall where the party was being held. An orchestra was playing, an impressive buffet covered a considerable part of the floor, and there was even a fancy fountain. Not to mention of course a number of supervillains, high-ranking mafia members, and other dangerous criminals. Willcraft was drooling at all the competition that could be erased by blowing up this one room...
Luna led him by the arm further into the room.
"We'll mingle for a while and then you'll just follow my lead," she whispered.
"I don't know how mingling works. I never was the social type, you know that."
"You're not the only antisocial villain in this room, I'm sure you'll be fine. Your name is enough to give you a pass on some social taboos."
"Woo, status...!"
As if on cue, a middle-aged man dressed in a suit and a monocle approached the pair.
"Ah, are you Mr. Willcraft?" he asked in a British accent.
"I am," Willcraft responded. "And you must be Mr. Generic Villain. Did you shave off your mustache?"
Luna rolled her eyes and groaned, but the man chuckled.
"I did not expect someone with your appearance to be the witty type, Mr. Willcraft," he said and extended his hand. "You can call me Mr. Blackwood."
Willcraft repressed the urge to make an interracial cuckold joke and instead said: "I prefer not to shake hands. There's a 1/8 chance it'll trigger my sleeve harpoon, and I'm trying to keep the number of impaled guests tonight at zero. I still gotta tweak that thing, it was really awkward when it first happened..."
Blackwood chuckled again. "Inventive too. I'm liking you already. Your friend is quite lucky. Who might you be, ma'am?"
As Blackwood turned to Luna, Willcraft answered for her. "Mine. That's who she is, mine. Keep your sugardaddy fingers off her funbags."
Blackwood raised an eyebrow. "He doesn't... socialize a lot, does he?"
"No," was Luna's elaborate response.
"I expected such. Now if you'll excuse me, I shall move on to another guest. You two have fun now. I hope to see more of you, Mr. Willcraft."
With that, Blackwood disappeared into the crowd.
"Okay, now we've mingled," Willcraft said. "What's the next step?"
"Just act like you actually want to be here for a while," Luna responded.
"Oh, as long as you're here, I don't have to act..."
Willcraft hugged her close, knowing Luna wouldn't resist as to avoid blowing their cover.
"Your body is so soft and yet so firm..." he whispered. "Two positive and contradictory qualities... I don't know how you pull it off, but I just want to squeeze you all over until I pass out from exhaustion..."
Luna said nothing, but glared at him through her mask. Then, the area around them began to clear out as people prepared for a dance session.
"Ah, perfect timing," Willcraft whispered. "I was just about to suggest a dance."
"Fine, but one bad touch and I'll lead."
* * *
"I gotta admit," Lawrence said to himself. "These drone thingies are pretty neat."
He was sitting by the supercomputer which currently displayed three windows showing what the three drones could see, as well as a fourth window displaying commands for them. Willcraft had ordered him to oversee them. Most likely they'd be able to carry out their tasks without any assistance, but if anything went wrong, he was counting on Lawrence to deal with it. Lawrence had seen this as a perfect opportunity to browse some porn on the supercomputer he usually lacked access to, but Willcraft had given him detailed instructions to make sure he couldn't do anything bad. That included using the computer for anything other than what he was supposed to, soiling the fancy swivel chair, or even minor things like resting his feet on the control panel. As such, Lawrence was experiencing the rare emotion of boredom and was forced to divide his attention between his actual task and trying to figure out some way to defy his boss just to prove that he could.
The Cloak Drones had been assigned the task of disabling the mansions many security systems. It looked rather easy to break into, with few visible safety measures beyond the fence, but nobody would be dumb enough to throw a party for supervillains and other criminals without making sure that nobody would get violent. At least, nobody who also had the resources to do so.
There were a number of expensive machines that would disable some variations of common superpowers, rendering most attendants that were more of a threat almost perfectly harmless. For the rest there were the more standard things like security cameras, turrets, armed and armoured guards, lasers, and hidden metal doors waiting to block most escape routes. It really was a perfect death trap, and anyone who willingly stepped inside only did so because the arrangers of the party were known and respected in the criminal community. Lawrence still didn't trust them though, and he knew Willcraft didn't either. Which was why he was currently overseeing the drones in their work to disable every security system.
So far they were doing well. They were indeed invisible to both human eyes, artificial eyes and radars, allowing them to move undetected. They had also been equipped with non-standard equipment to make the job easier, which had aided them in quickly getting into the more private areas of the mansion where they were now hard at work selectively disabling the different security systems. Lawrence remembered the orders, they weren't supposed to tamper with the devices that disabled superpowers, those only gave Willcraft an advantage, so if they did start doing that, stop them. He hadn't actually been told what his boss was planning, but he could guess. And if his guess was right, he would have to take back his protests against him going to that dumb party.
He did notice that the security cameras were strangely already disabled, and the drones, not detecting this, disabled them again anyway. Lawrence suspected that Luna or some villain at the party had already been there... Not that he cared, as he had more selfish worries.
"I sure hope he doesn't take such a big liking to those things that he starts using them as his standard minion. Then I'd have to scrap my blueprints..."
He looked again at the crayon drawings he had made as "blueprints" for his boss, suggesting a robot minion design. The crudely drawn robot on the drawings resembled a big-headed Creeper wearing a propeller hat with a laser gun.
"They're like me, but smaller and inferior," he giggled. "Also they fly. With propellers. The cutest way of flying. My little babies..."
He forced himself to concentrate just a little bit more on his task, but reminded himself to pitch his idea to Willcraft as soon as possible. He just needed to work out the minor design flaws first.
The Cloak Drones were soon finished with their task, and Lawrence watched them exit the building with relative ease, not getting close to being detected once.
"Ugh, how the hell did he program them to do that completely on their own? ...Maybe I should lie just a little bit about how well they did, so he won't be as quick to making them his standard minions..."
Once all three drones were out of the building and were idly hovering above it, awaiting the next step, Lawrence got up from the chair. This was his cue. When the drones are in position for phase two, get your big mechanical ass to the site. Those had been Willcraft's exact words.
* * *
As the dance came to an end, Luna began to subtly pull Willcraft towards one of the room's doors.
"Okay, now it's time to move," she whispered.
"I'm pretty sure just now was the time to move," Willcraft said. "And you sure did. All that ninja exercising has done wonders for your dancing skills."
"And your footwork is still too slow. Now come on."
Before they could reach the door, a guest came in their way. Clearly a supervillain, judging from the black and yellow suit, cape, and the golden mask that entirely lacked features.
"I don't think we've spoken yet," he said, his voice way less muffled by the mask than one would expect.
"No, and so far my life isn't any richer from that changing," Willcraft responded.
Unlike the previous guest they had spoken to, this man did not seem to have the same appreciation for Willcraft's social ineptitude.
"Hopefully I can reverse that within this conversation," the man said. "You are a promising addition to our side of the law. I heard of a rather recent occurrence where a beginning superhero described an encounter with you. He told quite the... exciting tale."
"Oh, I'm sure he exaggerated it... But just to be clear, I was fucking awesome."
"Word is you pulled him off a roof with a harpoon hidden in your arm, detected him through a solid surface, destroyed a store just for the setting, shot him in the legs and knocked him out with one blow."
"That's all true. I was going to kill him, but I thought it was better to let him spread the word. I'm glad he didn't alter the story to make himself look good..."
"There isn't much of a point trying to make yourself look good when the police has revealed your secret identity while you were unconscious and you're traumatized and bound to a wheelchair indefinitely."
"Heh... Well, what can I say, I like to serve as a wake-up call for newbie heroes. Be the one that smacks them over the head with the cold, hard truth that if they wanna get into the hero business, they have to deal with guys like me. Not just imbeciles in masks and striped clothes."
"I respect that. Discouraging heroism is a service to all of us."
The man pulled out a calling card from a pocket and held it out to Willcraft. "In fact, I came to this social event hoping to find some new potential members. I represent The Faceless Ones, a league of masked supervillains that you might know about. You fit our standards both in terms of attire and more importantly skill. Would you be interested?"
"Nope," Willcraft said and took the calling card, putting it in his chest pocket. "But I'm keeping this anyway for bragging rights."
"Very well. Then you can contact us if you change your mind," the man said and quickly moved out of their way.
"Are you jelly that he asked me and not you, even though you're also wearing a mask?" Willcraft asked Luna.
"No," she replied and pulled him towards the door. She turned her head and observed the other guests. The very moment nobody in the room was looking, she quickly opened the door and slipped inside, dragging in Willcraft as well, and then closing the door before anyone could notice a thing.
"Heh, it's fun to actually be with you when you pull one of your sudden disappearance acts..." Willcraft responded. "It's like finding out how a magician do their tricks."
"Just be quiet and follow me."
"Wait, you only needed me to get in to the party. Shouldn't you be doing whatever comes next without me?"
"That would be optimal, but I still need you."
So I can take the blame if something goes wrong, I bet, Willcraft thought. That didn't matter though... She didn't know that he also had something planned. And as a bonus, he got to spend more time with her.
Luna led him up a staircase, and he sneakily put a fist-sized bomb on the underside of the stair when she wasn't looking, the sound of it attaching drowned out by the sound of them walking up the stairs. She didn't notice anything, just like she hadn't noticed any of the others he had placed out.
If she truly wanted to be the ninja-vigilante she was aspiring to be, he would never have gotten away with it. But she was still a relative beginner, just like him. Sure, he had made the beginner mistake of becoming insanely horny from a cheap distraction, but she had allowed herself to get knocked out by Lawrence. Her career could have ended then and there if Lawrence wasn't such a selfish jerk.
They climbed the stairs until they reached the third and top floor, and Luna then moved silently across the corridors, making sure to keep Willcraft next to her and just out of reach in case he decided to pull any tricks on her.
Eventually they reached a door that was seemingly made of oak, but Willcraft's research had told him was actually made of titanium. Beyond it was the office, and the most likely location of the party's arrangers. According to what he had found out, some of them would join the party halfway through for some announcements and other nonsense, and some wouldn't at all. Crimelords were weird... Arranging fancy parties only to not attend, just to gain some sort of status points.
"Did you bring any weapons?" Luna asked.
"You're gonna kill the party arrangers?"
"Yes. A statement to all crimelords thinking they can flaunt their existence by arranging public events without getting caught."
"You sure are aiming big already."
"Aren't you?"
"Of course I am. And those aims are easier achieved with less competition, so I'm completely on board with this."
"I thought you would be. Just stay hidden for the first few seconds for me, okay?"
The door keeping them from their targets was protected with a hand sensor and eye sensor. Luna easily tricked her way past them while Willcraft honoured her request and stepped out of sight, and the door swung open.
The crimelords inside were sitting around a table in expensive-looking armchairs, talking and chuckling, but as soon as they noticed the door opening they all went quiet and turned their heads towards the door, as surprised to see it open as they were to see nobody standing there. Then, one of them was abruptly yanked out of his armchair by a rope that nobody had noticed coil around his neck, and the others quickly got out of their armchairs reaching for whatever firearms were available while some bodyguards in the corners of the room got ready for combat, firing some shots at the ceiling.
While the first crimelord's corpse was neatly hung from one of the ceiling's beams, Willcraft stepped inside the room with his axe in hand, which until now he had kept hidden under his trenchcoat.
While he did for the most part prefer unarmed combat, he did have a fondness for axes. Or at least this one axe. He had found it in a forest as a child and had a lot of fun playing with it. When becoming a villain, he had decided to reinforce it to make it worthy of a supervillain and now wielded it as his secondary weapon of choice.
He was able to run a few steps unnoticed thanks to Luna's distraction, and then he was greeted by a shower of bullets while some of the bodyguards moved into melee range to pummel him to death. However he deflected the bullets with relative ease.
In addition to his suit being fireproof, it was also relatively bulletproof. And whatever bullets got through it would just hit his OTHER bulletproof article of clothing below. He had also developed very thin but strong sheets of metal to wear on his limbs for the purpose of deflecting gunfire and weapons, and in general dampen any hits he sustained and strengthen any hit he delivered. And he was pleased to see it work, managing to block, shrug off or just evade any bullet hitting him while he swung his axe with deadly precision and strength.
The battle was over rather quickly, the bodyguards and crimelords swiftly being hacked to death or having their necks snapped by Luna's rope. When only one crimelord remained, Willcraft decided to go for a flashy finish and shot out his sleeve harpoon, impaling the crimelord's chest. Then he had it retract its barbs and go straight back into his sleeve, reminding him of the blood-related detail of its design that still needed to be addressed.
Luna dropped down from the ceiling overlooking their work. "It looks like we're done."
"Not quite," Willcraft responded and cleaned off his axe with the coat of one of the crimelords that hung from the ceiling before returning it to its hidden place in his trenchcoat. "You gotta leave some kind of sign that this was your work."
"The hanged bodies aren't enough?"
"Not when all of them aren't hanged, no."
"Well... I guess this scene looks far too unprofessional for me anyway. Let's just see what people make of this combination of savagery and cleanliness. Let them make up their own minds."
"I see... So... We're enemies again now?"
"Yes."
"How about a kiss first? I won't even take off my mask, so you won't even have to deal with any saliva or lip contact."
"You're really desperate, aren't you?"
"No, REALLY desperate would be to knock you out with sleeping gas and sodomize your unconscious body. I'm just desperate."
Luna chuckled and walked closer to Willcraft, a visible swing to her hips. Then she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a long, tender kiss.. which was interrupted without warning when an alarm started blaring.
"You pressed the alarm button, didn't you?" Willcraft asked.
"Literally behind your back."
"Still worth it."
Luna rolled her eyes and slipped out of the room within two seconds. Willcraft could probably have caught her if he wanted to. But he didn't want to, not this time. He still had his own business here, so her attempt to frame him wasn't that much of an inconvenience.
Besides... Catching her NOW would defeat the purpose of attaching that little transmitter to her. She wasn't the only one who could pull dirty tricks while kissing...
Willcraft held up his wrist to his mouth, where he had placed a communication device, and spoke to Lawrence. "It's time for phase two."
"Whaaat?"
"I said, it's time for phase two."
"Whaaat? There's some fucking alarm in the background. Or well, foreground, considering how loud it is. You're the background."
"IT'S TIME FOR PHASE TWO! For fuck's sake, that was so close to being a badass moment, and you fucked it up!"
"Don't blame me, blame the alarm!"
"Just get on with it!"
"...Get on with what?"
"Oh right, I haven't told you what to do yet... Break down the front door and start killing everyone!"
"...FUCK YEAH!"
Willcraft ended the call just in time to hear some guards approaching. He glanced at the huge window at the side of the room, pressing a few buttons on the device on his wrist. Then he positioned himself right next to the window as the guards entered the room.
"I know what you're thinking," he said. "'Oh great, we've got him cornered! There's no way he can escape through the window, because we're on the third floor!' Well... Would you think differently if there happened to be some drones right outside this window, ready to gun you all down?"
"Yes," one of the guards said. "I would think that the window being made of bulletproof glass would ruin that."
"Oh, it's bulletproof? That wasn't specified in the info I found about this place... I mean, I suspected it, but I wasn't sure, and kind of unconsciously set my mind to it not being bulletproof. So thanks for the heads-up."
With that, Willcraft pressed another button on his wrist, commanding his drones to fire missiles, not bullets, and the window erupted in an explosion. The guards were showered in glass shards, and then missiles, making short work of them.
"That was just as awesome as I hoped it would be..." Willcraft said and pressed one final button, this one to detonate the explosives he had placed out inside the mansion. Then he leaped out of the window, caught by the drones. He then rid them through the air as he watched the bombs explode.
They weren't supposed to completely destroy the mansion; then the devices deactivating some of the guests' superpowers would be destroyed too, and he wanted to keep that advantage. But it would be enough to cause a few deaths, and weaken the mansion's bearing walls to the point that the whole thing would collapse within a few minutes. Hopefully enough time to finish the work.
The drones carried Willcraft to the mansion's front door, which had been broken down. He leaped off his escorts and one of them returned to hovering above it all, ready to take out anyone attempting to escape the scene. The other two followed Willcraft back inside the mansion where he found a violent battle going on, the main focus of it being Lawrence who seemed to be having a blast punching and shooting the villains. Some of them were even fighting each other in the confusion, not knowing who was hostile towards who.
As Willcraft had expected, most but not all of them weren't much of a threat. The non-supervillains who were simply high-ranking criminals weren't even trying to get into a fight, instead keeping a safe distance or trying to go for an exit. The supervillains whose powers weren't working were doing the same, or making valiant attempts to fight the deadly mech anyway. Finally, there were the supervillains who didn't have superpowers or whose superpowers weren't covered by the power-deactivators. These guys were still a major threat to Lawrence's safety. He was currently keeping them at bay, but probably wouldn't be able to for long. He wouldn't have to though, because Willcraft was about join him.
Willcraft started off by throwing the only bomb he hadn't placed on the mansion into the crowd, a safe distance from Lawrence, and watched with glee as the villains who weren't fast enough to get out of the way got blown to bits. Then he pulled out his axe again and started fighting.
He had made sure to research all the guests at the party, and had basic knowledge of the supervillains that were still going to put up a fight. He knew that he wouldn't be able to take out some of them, let alone all of them at once, but he had two invisible killer drones by his side, so he could hopefully focus on those he could take out. He just had to stay aware of his surroundings, which hadn't been a problem in the past.
He first went for the ones he knew would be troublesome, but he would also be able to defeat, while directing his drones towards the ones out of his league. The gunfire that seemed to be coming from nowhere instilled even more confusion, causing more villains to fight amongst each other instead of focusing on the real enemy.
It was amazing how quickly one could dispatch dozens of villains when they were packed together and most couldn't use their superpowers or didn't have any. Especially when you got two invisible flying drones with machine guns, a foulmouthed mech, and a specially crafted axe. The burning, collapsing mansion was soon rid of all villain rivals, except for some who wouldn't fight back, instead making futile escape attempts or just cowering against the walls. One of them being Blackwood.
"Hey," Willcraft called to Lawrence. "Guess what this guy's name is?"
"Monocle Man?" Lawrence asked.
"Blackwood."
Lawrence snickered. "Did he name himself after his wife's favourite food?"
"I knew you'd say that, you rascal."
Willcraft then turned to Blackwood and raised his arm, firing his harpoon at him, but narrowly missing on purpose.
"I said I wanted to keep the amount of impaled guests tonight at zero. I'm a man of my word."
When Blackwood stayed in place and stared at Willcraft with fear in his eyes and quick breaths, he sighed.
"That means I'm sparing you. You did compliment me a few times, and I like that. Besides, you seem like a boring guy anyway, so I don't think keeping you alive will be much of a loss."
Blackwood gave a quick nod of appreciation and then ran out of the room, Lawrence only allowing it because Willcraft waved a finger at him when attempting to blast him.
"Hmm, I wonder if he'll get past the drone I left outside..." Willcraft mumbled. "Eh, whatever..."
He scanned the room for more victims, but it appeared that none were left. That is, save for the man from The Faceless Ones who was standing in the hallway.
"I'm disappointed to see someone with your potential turn out to be so reckless," he said.
Willcraft shrugged. "Didn't me declining your invitation give you any hint about my alignment? I'm Chaotic Evil, not Lawful Evil."
The man lowered his head in a slow, dramatic gesture, and then he walked out of view. Lawrence followed him, but found nothing.
"Ugh, think he's one of those teleporters?" he groaned.
"I don't know and I don't care," Willcraft replied. "At least he'll be able to tell this awesome tale. Him and Blackwood, if he survived."
"Heh, Blackwood... Black wood... Black cock... Nigg-"
"Shut up and get moving. We're done here. Now we just need to get out before this place falls apart, and then get home fast."
The two left the mansion, which conveniently collapsed when they had only taken a few steps outside, making for a badass backdrop.
"This went well," Lawrence said. "Gotta hand it to ya, this party thing was actually great."
"Thanks."
"Though please never mention me saying that again. Don't want people thinking I'm the guy who throws around compliments."
"Sure. An acknowledgement from you is far from the only reward I hope to reap from this anyway. Imagine the infamy boost this'll give me..."
"Oh yes... And probably also a lot of enemies, both heroes and villains."
"I know, isn't it exciting?"
"It is."
"And let's not forget..." Willcraft held up his wrist and moved back the sleeve, looking at the device, where a little screen displayed a map with a blinking dot. "I even managed to give Luna a little departing gift..."
Willcraft decided that this was a perfect moment for an evil laugh. So he did just that. Lawrence stayed silent for a little, but since he was giddy from all the killing and their success, he eventually joined in.