Crawling through vents

The vent was tighter than Aaron expected, but that didn’t mean he was complaining. Not when he had this view. Black Canary, Dinah Lance herself, was just a few feet ahead, and from where Aaron was crawling, the black fishnets hugged her thighs in a way that had him cursing his luck—both good and bad. Good because, well, this was a hell of a view. Bad because this really wasn’t the time or place.

‘Focus,’ he thought, reminding himself that they were deep in the underground complex of the Ninth Circle, a cultish group of elites who liked to deal in human misery and profit. So focus. Don't get horny. He was in a bathrobe and his dick would pop out like steel if it got hard.

But as Dinah crawled, her heart-shaped butt lay ahead like candy. The fishnets only added to the effect, highlighting her curves in a way that felt practically illegal.

“You doing okay back there, Aaron?” she whispered.

He suddenly felt a little too warm under his black bathrobe. “Yeah,” he whispered back, forcing his eyes off her ass and back down to the cold, metallic vent walls. “All good. Just keeping an eye on our six.”

Dinah chuckled softly, the sound barely audible over the metallic creaks of the vent. “Keep at it then.”

They pressed on, crawling through the tight, winding shaft, their path lit only by the red lights filtering through the grates. Black Canary stopped and Aaron’s forehead touched her ass. He retreated ever so slightly to see what was up.

“We’re here,” Dinah whispered. The vents ended here, facing a cavernous area like Black Canary’s had been. Except instead of a box, smack in the back of it all was a vault, thick steel with a keypad and card slot, guarded by a pack of twenty Underground Men.

The Underground Men were the worst kind of bodyguards: blank, hollow-eyed sentinels with skin marred and burned from their so-called “rebirth” in lava. They were intimidating, garbed in red robes and cloaks and each cradling those annoying machine guns. It didn’t help that these guys didn’t feel pain or succumb to chemical agents, a fact Aaron figured while he was crawling through the vents and using his X-ray and thermal vision. The Ninth Circle really knew how to make their guards extra horrifying.

To a god like him, it didn’t matter. To a metahuman like Black Canary, it did. She bit her bottom lip and peered down through the grate. “That door isn’t going to open without that passcode and keycard,” she whispered. “Did Killer Frost mention who was guarding this place?”

“Yes. It should be Cupid.”

Dinah’s left brow twitched. Ooh, she didn’t like Cupid. Not one bit—and he couldn’t blame her either. See, Cupid AKA Carrie Cutter was a deranged archer with a deranged crush on Green Arrow. As Oliver’s fiancé, she didn’t take too kindly to deranged stalkers.

“She’s probably inside,” Dinah seethed, “wanting to spend time with Ollie. Cupid won’t come out.”

So how were they supposed to get in? Or more specifically, how was Aaron supposed to get in without telling her he was an almighty god?

Just then, a voice crackled through the comms of the Underground Men. “All units, be advised. Killer Frost is loose and freeing prisoners on sublevel three. Send half over. We must contain her.”

There was a beat of silence, then the men split into two groups, with ten remaining to guard the vault while the others hurried off. There were some crates with back-up weapons and grenades as well as three steel pillars. If it came down to a frontal ****, they would be ready.

Dinah turned to Aaron. “Looks like Frost is holding up her end,” she whispered. “Ten is still a lot, but it’s manageable. I can take them down quietly.”

Aaron nodded, keeping up the act. To her, he was just a detective with a knack for finding trouble and handling it. She had no idea he was much more than that and she didn’t have to. “I’ll stay put. Be careful.”

“Always am,” Dinah said, giving him a wink before dropping through the grate, landing with barely a sound. The moment her boots hit the floor, it felt like it was already over. The first Underground Man barely had time to register the faint scuff of her boot before she spun around him, hooking his neck with her arm and squeezing just enough to cut off his consciousness. He dropped silently to the floor, his machine gun slipping from his fingers with a muted clatter.

Before the next guard could react, she darted forward, dropping low and sweeping his legs out from under him. He crumpled, and before he could even blink, her fist struck his temple with a decisive thud. Two down.

The sound of the fall drew the attention of a third guard, who turned just in time to catch a spinning back kick to the jaw. The **** sent him staggering into a row of crates, but Dinah was already moving, rolling behind the opposing set of crates. She was completely out of sight as the remaining guards raised their weapons, eyes narrowing as they searched for the source of the disturbance. They found it. They found the bodies. All that was left to find the woman responsible.

The room erupted with a tense silence, their fingers tight on their triggers, heads swiveling to catch a glimpse of their unseen enemy. The low glow of emergency lights cast long, eerie shadows that danced across their burned, expressionless faces.

“Who is there?” one of them barked, voice hollow and mechanical, like he was already more machine than man. "Come out and die."

Dinah steadied her breathing as she rolled and crouched behind a steel beam, counting their footsteps, timing their shifts. Three of them grouped up, moving in a formation that betrayed their training. Perfect.

She sprang out, planting her heel into the ribcage of the nearest guard, the crack audible even over the hum of tension. She grabbed his falling weapon, using it to block the butt of another gun coming her way. Spinning the rifle like a baton, she swung it up under the second guard’s jaw, sending him crashing to the floor, out cold.

A shout of warning went up, and suddenly the remaining guards surged forward, their steps thundering like a heartbeat. One aimed, but she was already inside his guard, her knee driving into his midsection. His eyes went wide for a split second before she slammed an elbow down onto his spine, dropping him hard.

The last four rushed her at once, forming a brutal wall of muscle and weaponry. But Dinah didn’t falter. She ducked under the arc of a gunstock aimed at her head, twisting behind the guard and using his own momentum to throw him into another. They tangled and fell in a heap, leaving two more.

One of them managed a lucky grab, clamping his burned, calloused hand around her wrist. Dinah spun into the hold, wrenching his arm and using her momentum to throw him over her shoulder with a crash that echoed like a gunshot. The last guard, eyes cold and unfeeling, lunged forward, gun aimed directly at her chest.

No time for subtlety.

Dinah’s eyes narrowed as she planted her feet. With a quick, powerful inhale, she opened her mouth and unleashed a focused, bone-rattling Canary Cry—just enough to disarm, not alert. The soundwave hit like a shockwave, and the guard was blasted back into the metal pillar, slumping down motionless.

Breathless but steady, Dinah stood in the silence, the room now strewn with **** bodies. She turned back to the vent, where Aaron was already coming out.

“Not bad for a detective to watch, huh?” she whispered, smirking as she wiped a strand of blonde hair from her face.

Aaron dropped down, bathrobes flinging upward, letting her catch a whiff of his flaccid cock. He applauded her. “Impressive. Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

Dinah stepped over a guard, breathing steady as she examined the heavy steel door to the vault. It was an imposing barrier, reinforced with enough metal to withstand any brute ****. The keypad blinked ominously, a small red light above it glowing like a challenge.

Aaron moved to Dinah’s side, eyes locked on the vault. The keypad and card slot were intricately designed—too advanced for anything straightforward. And the Ninth Circle wouldn’t make a mistake in their security.

“Looks like Cupid keeps this place locked down tight,” Dinah said. “We need that passcode and card. Both.”

Aaron stared at the door for a moment, brow furrowed in concentration. ‘Think, Aaron. What would they do in a place like this? What would they rely on that they might not even realize?’

He took a step back, examining the layout of the wall surrounding the vault. His eyes flicked over to the rocks to his left. Aaron flashed his X-ray and found something: a narrow, hidden panel protected by the rocks. It was small, inconspicuous and impossible to see unless you were the world's greatest detective or already knew what to look for.

“There,” Aaron said, running to the rock. He gave it a smack and the rock popped open to reveal the panel. “I bet it’s a failsafe. A manual override in case the electronic system crashes.”

Dinah's eyes lit up with sudden hope. “If you’re right, that could give us just enough to bypass the card reader.”

Aaron ran his fingers over the seams until he found the latch. With a soft click, the panel popped open to reveal a small, complicated series of wires and mechanical gears. It wasn’t just an override—it was a trap meant to lock down the vault permanently if someone triggered it wrong.

“Don't you need tools?”

From his bathrobe, said tools appeared.

“Is that a magic robe or…?”

Aaron did not reply, smiling, and worked quickly. He wasn't a tech wizard but with his powers, he could be. He bypassed the main relay and found the backup circuit that fed into the lock mechanism. One wrong move, and they’d be stuck—or worse, alerted Cupid to their tampering. But after a few tense moments, the mechanism gave a soft, satisfying click, and the card slot’s red light turned green.

“Got it,” Aaron said, stepping back from the rocks and looking at the vault. The vault door shifted with a heavy metallic groan, the pressure seals releasing one by one.

Dinah let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “You really are full of surprises, you know that?” she said, a grin pulling at her lips.

Aaron shrugged and came over to her side. “You learn a thing or two in Gotham.”

With a nod, Dinah placed her hand on the vault and pushed it open just enough for them to see inside.