Trump Card (Worm AU) [Complete]

Trump Card

Chapter Eight: The Debut of Hax


Über's fingers rattled on the keyboard of the small laptop, as he gazed intently at the screen. His lips moved as he murmured to himself, going through the steps we had planned. Entering one last command, he hit the Enter key with a flourish, and pulled the laptop cover closed. “Eight twenty eight and counting,” he announced in his resonant voice. “The hack is good to go. Ready when you are, Hax."

I opened my mouth to reply in the affirmative, then paused. This is it. This is the point where I can't pretend any more that it's just a game, not any more. If I do this, I'm a supervillain. I'm a criminal. If I get caught, I go to jail.

"Hax?" L33t's voice was dubious. "Are you wimping out on us?"

"Give me a moment," I managed. "This is a big step."

"Huh," he sneered. "I knew it. You talk a good game, but -"

Über overrode him. "We're working on a limited time window here, Hax. Is this a go or a no go?"

I took a deep breath. I didn't want to be a supervillain, but I hadn't really been given all that many choices to begin with. At least this way, this path, was my choice, not someone else's.

"I'm in," I confirmed. "Let's do this."

"Woo hoo!" crowed L33t. "Let's kick this puppy!"

"Don't ever let Bitch hear you say that," advised Über dryly. He checked his watch. "Thirty seconds to go time. Phase one, mark."

I wanted to ask who 'Bitch' was - in my perusal of the PHO boards, I had never encountered that name - but there would be time later. "Mark," I echoed.

My first criminal act as a supervillain was under way.

<><>​

We had taken a couple of days to get ready; L33t whined a bit about this, but Über seemed to be okay with it. I suspected that he was observing me closely, in order to make sure I wasn't setting them up for a betrayal down the line. That didn't bother me; I was putting their powers to good use.

From Über I picked up a range of skills suited to my purposes; running, jumping, basic martial arts, sneaking and hiding, and so on. I found that the skills lingered after I swapped my power focus to L33t, but tended to fade unless I made use of them semi-regularly. That was fine with me; I intended to use them just as often as I needed to.

L33t was sullen about the fact that I could apparently use his power to pursue avenues that he had already 'used up'. During my time in his workshop, I constructed two devices. One was a hand-held wireless taser - it had a limited range and not many shots, but it also had the advantage of being ninety percent off-the-shelf hardware; I'd had to tweak the capacitor that acted as an energy magazine to hold more power than normal, but the end result was a pistol that would fire maybe six debilitating shots before I had to recharge it. And it would fit into a holster in the small of my back.

Drawing, aiming and firing that pistol; that was one of the skillsets I practised assiduously.

The other device had drawn scorn from L33t, and dubious glances from his partner.

"A cape detector?" Über had asked. "Really?"

I nodded, still fitting the headband into place, then flipping down the goggle lenses. The cigarette pack sized module sat comfortably at the back of my head; it hummed slightly when I flipped the switch to power it up.

"Really," I told him. "It's only got about a twenty yard range - I had to sacrifice range for precision - but the right lens has a HUD that shows me rough distance and bearing, and the left will show a dot when I'm looking right at someone with powers." And, although it wasn't relevant, the lenses also optically corrected my short-sightedness.

"So does it tell you what the powers the person's got?" he asked.

I shook my head. "But that's what my power's good for," I reminded him.

"But can't you already do that if you're up against a cape?" Über wanted to know.

"Only if I know he's there," I pointed out. "If I'm focused on someone and another cape is sneaking up behind me, or behind a wall, I really want to know about it. Might be a powerset I can use, right there."

"You realise," L33t jeered, "if you get caught wearing that thing while walking down the street, they'll go after you for trying to find out secret identities."

"But I won't be using it for that," I protested. "Besides, my powers work just fine even without it."

Über cleared his throat meaningfully, looking from one of us to the other. "L33t, shouldn't you be making stuff too?' he suggested. "After all, we still need to get through security."

"She's hogging my workbench," complained L33t.

"Not at all," I contradicted, stepping away from the bench. "All yours. Thanks for the loan."

Muttering under his breath, L33t had reclaimed his workspace, and set about constructing devices of his own. I shared a glance with Über; he shrugged expressively. He and I had pooled our talents - freshly acquired, on my part - to plan this heist, and I found that we synergised well. L33t, on the other hand, was still visibly resentful of my presence.

I wasn't sure whether his antipathy was due to my inviting myself on to the team, or the fact that I could do everything he could as a Tinker and more. Or it just may have been that Über and I found ourselves on the same wavelength a lot of the time when I was sharing his power, and L33t felt left out.

In a way, I kind of knew how he felt - Emma had done the same thing to me, only more so - and so I tried to avoid excluding him from the conversations altogether. Unfortunately, even when given the benefit of the doubt, a resentful L33t wasn't a very pleasant person to try to get along with. There was only so much I could do before giving up.

<><>​

”I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Shadow Stalker,” Vista confided as she stepped over the rooftops.

Aegis, overhead, nodded. “You're not far wrong,” he agreed. “With her on permanent base duty, our patrol schedules are all messed up.”

“I haven't even been out this way for too long,” the youngest member of the Wards told him. “What are the waypoints?”

“Tonight, we'll hold for a few minutes at the North Side warehouse,” he replied. “Use the pause to get a feel of the area, make sure nothing's going down.”

She nodded. “Good idea.”

<><>​

The North Side Storage Facility was a huge, blocky building. For those not in the know, the name did not excite much in the way of interest. For those who were in the know – such as Über, L33t and myself – it was a clearing-house for nearly all the high-end electrical and electronic components that came into the city. During daylight hours, secure vehicles arrived and left on an hourly basis, bound for destinations all over Brockton Bay. Any Tinker worth his salt would give an arm, a leg and the vital organ of his choice, for the chance of browsing the shelves for half an hour with an unlimited charge account.

We intended to do much the same, only without resorting to the charge account.

Of course, this robbery would not be a simple case of strolling in, shorting out the alarm system and taking our pick of the merchandise. Literally millions of dollars' worth of equipment rolled through the place on a weekly – sometimes daily – basis, and the security was beefed up to a commensurate level.

Tinker-made detectors supplemented the pressure plates, infrared detectors, body-heat sensors, CO2 detectors and so on. The walls and ceiling were coated with a thin polymer that was designed to pull away (and set off an alarm) if anything over one ounce in weight tried to crawl on it. There were sensors set to detect the sudden change in air pressure that teleporters may cause.

In short, the proprietors of the facility had done their best to reduce the utterly astronomical insurance premiums engendered by maintaining a stock of highly valuable merchandise in a city riddled with criminal capes.

I suspected that we were going to nudge those premiums up slightly.

<><>​

Aegis had a lot of time for Vista. The youngest of the Wards, she had more experience under her belt than Shadow Stalker, Kid Win and Clockblocker, and more or less equal time with Gallant. He appreciated her professional demeanour, and the way that she didn't let obstacles stand in her way – both figuratively and literally.

Which was why he felt bad every time he saw her face light up, every time that Dean entered the room. Dean had an ongoing thing with Glory Girl; Vista had to know that. But still, she all but followed him around the base. And when she had the chance to go out on patrol with him, she positively glowed.

One day, not too long distant if he was any judge, she was going to come to the realisation that Dean simply was not interested in her. And the knowledge would break her heart.

As the team second in command, he felt that it was his duty to try to tell her, let her down gently. But he had no idea how to bring it up.

<><>​

Phase one of the plan was gaining entry to the premises. Phase two was grabbing the gear we needed; some of what L33t wanted, but mainly stuff for me. Phase three, of course, was getting the heck out of Dodge. If the plan lasted that far.

We were all wearing basic black coveralls and masks; L33t had (predictably) protested the lack of a video game theme. Über was also less than thrilled about the departure from their regular MO, but he had given it his provisional acceptance, so long as it didn't become an ongoing thing.

L33t had opposed the entire concept of robbing North Side; it was, he protested, a needless risk for too little gain. Über had responded by waving the catalogue under his nose, until he began to read through it. It wasn't long before his eyes started to glaze, and the protests dried up.

It had taken a while to figure out how to defeat the security system, but between us, Über and I had done it. The key was a thirty-second gap in the main security system coverage. Normally, this was not a problem, North Side had a complete second security system, independent from the first one in every way, that was checked extensively before being activated. At eight thirty every morning, the primary system went down for a thirty-second self-check and diagnostic, comparing every line of code in the computerised control systems to a hardwired offsite backup. The secondary security system went online at seven thirty and was turned off at nine thirty, once it was established that the primary was well and truly secure once more.

We couldn't hack the security system itself; multiple redundant system checks would ring bells all over if we even tried. Nor could we hack the secondary system; it was offline, on a physically isolated system, until it was activated in the morning.

So we hacked the system clock.

At eight twenty-nine and fifty-nine seconds, it would switch from PM to AM. At eight thirty, it would start counting seconds as minutes. At nine PM, it would switch back to PM, add twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds to its elapsed time, and continue upon its merry way.

But in that half-hour interval between eight thirty and nine PM, it would switch itself off; all locks would open, all cameras would cease recording, all sensors would be ignored. The secondary security system, which would normally have taken up these duties, was on a separate timer, and would not register the primary going offline.

Of course, the exterior doors and windows would still be active; they were on yet another system. So we had to get past those as well. Fortunately, we still had L33t's talents; as irritating and whiny as he was, he was still a Tinker of some note, and he had just the thing.

As Über's watch ticked over to eight thirty, we climbed out of the car and advanced across the street. Each of us carried an empty duffel bag; I also had a backpack loaded with tools of all sorts. I didn't think I'd need to do any Tinkering while in there, but there was always the off chance. L33t, on the other hand, carried a rectangular framework, about the size of an ordinary door when unfolded.

“I still think we should have gone with a theme,” grumbled L33t, even as he opened up the ungainly framework and pressed it against the side of the building, not far from a door.

“Themes are for when you're doing things in public, for your web show,” I pointed out, as patiently as I could manage. “Think of this as preparation for your next show. Even award winning TV shows have dress rehearsals.”

“I guess,” he muttered, and pressed a button on the small module attached. There was a buzz and a hum and the area inside the frame shimmered slightly.

I glanced at Über. “Ladies first?”

He shook his head. “I'll make sure it's secure. Or rather, not secure.”

Such was his faith in his partner's tech skills, he stepped forward boldly, not even testing the wall first. The faith was rewarded; the brickwork parted around him like water, and he disappeared into the wall. I nodded to L33t. “Nice.”

He didn't smile, but his hunched posture straightened slightly. “Whatever,” he muttered.

Ten seconds passed, and Über hadn't come barrelling out; nor had he called any of the distress phrases over the radios we all wore.

“Player one, status?” I called over the radio.

“All clear, player three,” he replied immediately. “Come on in, the water's fine.”

I stepped through the wall, followed closely by L33t. Blasting sirens totally failed to greet us. It was dark and quiet, lit only by emergency lighting.

We were in.

<><>​

Aegis called a halt on a rooftop near the looming bulk of the North Side Storage Facility. They waited several moments, watching and listening, before he finally decided to speak to her.

“Vista,” he began. “I think we should talk.”

“What about?” she asked.

He decided to bite the bullet. “It's about you and Dean.”

She seemed to freeze. “ … what?” she asked faintly.

He began to regret speaking up, but now that he had started, he had to see it through. “Listen, Missy. I just want to tell you, as a friend. Dean likes you as a person. But he's not -”

“I don't want to hear it,” she interrupted him, turning away, and putting her hands on the parapet at the edge of the building. “What's between me and Dean isn't anyone's business. Not yours, not Sophia's, not anyone's.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Missy -”

“Shut up,” she told him.

“No, you need to hear this -”

“No, you need to shut up,” Vista snapped. “Look, over there.”

He looked where she was pointing. In a patch of shadow between two overhead floodlights, three dark-clad figures were clustered next to the wall of the storage facility. And then one person stepped up to the solid wall … and through it.

Aegis glanced at Vista. “You saw that, just then, didn't you?” he queried.

She nodded. “Either someone's stealing Sophia's shtick,” she ventured, “Or that was her just down there.”

And then the other two also stepped into the wall and disappeared from view.

“Uh.” Missy paused. “I'll go for 'stealing her shtick'.”

“That's the North Side Storage Facility,” Aegis observed, even as he took to the air. “I think they'll be stealing more than that.”

“Can we bust them?” asked Missy eagerly. “Pretty please?”

Aegis grinned. “Only because you said please.”

He swooped down to where the trio had disappeared. She would not be far behind.


End of Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

 

Trump Card

Part Nine


We had travelled maybe a dozen steps, with Über that little bit in front of L33t and myself, when a red dot popped up on my right-hand goggle lens. It came in at the bottom of the lens, and travelled upward, fast. That meant …

“Incoming!” I yelled, shoving L33t. “Run! Get out of sight! Now!”

L33t took a second or so to register what I'd said, but Über was already running. I snatched the opportunity to glance over my shoulder at where the goggles said the intruder was coming from; to my surprise, I was looking up at the wall, a good twenty feet above ground level. Then I got it.

A flyer. Joy.

“Flying!” I added. I was already past L33t and pulling away from him. “For god's sake, don't just stand there!”

With a jolt, his brain seemed to kick into gear, and he started running, following me. Or rather, following Über, who I was following.

Two things happened about then; the first one was that the dot closed to within ten yards, which was my nominal range to detect and determine the powers of a cape. I immediately moved my focus from L33t to the new power source. I recognised it immediately.

“Aegis!” I yelled. “It's Aegis!”

And then the second thing happened. Another power source appeared, even closer, at ground level. Right next to the wall, it seemed. I flicked the focus to that one.

Knowledge of distance and speed, ability to manipulate space, make things closer or farther away …

“And Vista!” I concluded.

Using her power, I crunched space; not for me, but for L33t. Suddenly, he found himself at the far end of the row, past even where Über had gotten to. His startled yell drifted back to me, but I didn't care.

Right, how do I do this?

<><>​

Aegis landed on the pavement next to where the three dark-clad figures had vanished into the wall; seconds before he arrived, Vista twisted space, and got there ahead of him.

“Don't touch it,” he warned her, as she leaned close to examine the door-like frame attached to the wall.

“Wasn't going to,” she replied absently. “Tinker work for sure. I'm guessing either a teleportal through the wall, or something that makes the wall permeable.” She frowned. “Probably the latter, given that we're not looking directly into the building.”

Aegis nodded, impressed. As young as she was, she had a head on her shoulders, and she'd run into enough cape situations that she knew what she was doing. He pulled out his phone and hit speed-dial for the Protectorate floating base. Whoever was on monitor duty there would pick up.

Seconds later, he got an answer. “Miss Militia here. What's up, Aegis?”

Aegis had had a crush on the Protectorate hero when he first joined the Wards – and, truth be told, for a few years before that – but he'd since grown out of it. However, he had never lost the admiration and respect that he held for her.

“Miss Militia, ma'am. We have an ongoing break and enter at the North Side Storage Facility. Vista and I are on site; we've located a Tinkertech item they used to gain entry. Some sort of gate device. We saw three enter, all dressed in dark gear with no visible costumes, nothing that would point to ID. No indication of powers, except for the Tinkertech item, of course.” As he spoke, he pressed the button to put it on speaker, for Vista's benefit, then held up his phone so Miss Militia could see the device.

“Hm.” Miss Militia paused for a moment. “I'm not reading an alarm from the premises. No-one's patrolling near you. Closest black and white is a good fifteen minutes away. Armsmaster's dealing with an Empire Eighty-Eight matter. Can you hold, ambush them on the way out? We'll get reinforcements to you, as soon as possible.”

“I could,” he agreed. “And they might take more than fifteen minutes. Or they might take five. And when they come out, they're going to be carrying some very, very expensive stuff, you can bet on it. Which is guaranteed to be broken in any sort of ongoing fight.”

Vista spoke up. “If we pulled this device off the wall, it will probably deprive them of an escape route.” She paused. “Or no, better not.”

Aegis glanced at her. “Not that I was going to advocate it, but what are your reasons?”

“If one of them's a Tinker,” she pointed out, “they're in Tinker heaven right now. Given enough time, they could probably build a giant robot to smash down the wall.”

“All good points,” Miss Militia agreed. "What I want you to do is -"

<><>​

Drawing my taser pistol, I switched my focus to Aegis's power, and took up station directly above the section of wall where the heroes were going to come in. I didn't like the idea of ambushing them, or even attacking them at all, but the way I saw it, I didn't have much in the way of choice. In fact, the way I saw it, they'd taken away my choices when they let Sophia bully me, then didn't kick her out the minute they found out about her.

I'd had to make my own way in the world, and if joining forces with Über and L33t wasn't the best choice in the world, there were many worse ones. And nearly all the ones that involved remaining on the side of law and order belonged in the latter category. Besides, I ...

I frowned. They haven't come in yet. Why haven't they come in yet?

The tactical skills that I had acquired via Über's borrowed power kicked in. They hadn't come in because they either feared an ambush, or they were working out a plan of attack. They were too close to the door to be worried about me attacking them, so they were probably coordinating with their control, calling in reinforcements.

If we spent the half-hour here that I had planned, even if Aegis and Vista never came in, the place would be surrounded.

I couldn't wait for them to come in, to break the deadlock. I had to deal with them now.

Between my goggles and my power, I had a reasonable idea of where they were standing in relation to the 'doorway'. Lowering myself to the level of the doorway, I poked the taser pistol through until I figured the business end was out the other side, then I fired.

<><>​

Vista saw the squarish object poke out from the door frame, and reacted immediately. “Watch out!” she yelled, giving Aegis a shove, and leaping backward herself. Instinctively, she squeezed space behind her, covering ten yards in a moment.

The crackling path of electricity intercepted Aegis; more specifically, it grounded in his phone. He was thrown backward, landing heavily, but was up in a moment. The phone was fried, dark, useless. His right arm hung uselessly, twitching, then started to move again, clumsily, as he retasked muscle fibres to pass nerve impulses along.

The weapon, whatever it was, had disappeared, but neither Aegis nor Vista was taking any chances. They flattened themselves to the wall on either side of the entrance.

“They know we're here.” That was Vista.

“Yeah.” Aegis eyed the framework. “And if we hang about out here, they can pot-shot at us all night. That would have put you down.” He eyed the phone, still clutched in his hand. “Dammit. I liked that phone.”

“I've got mine -” Vista began, reaching to her belt.

Aegis shook his head. “Don't bother.” He pointed at the device, indicated his ears. They could be listening. “We're leaving. It's too dangerous. Let someone else deal with this.” She stared at him oddly; he shook his head violently.

Vista frowned slightly. “Triumph -”

“ - isn't here. We are. I'm making the decision.”

He completed the statement in simple sign language. Me – go in – fly – cover you.

She nodded, seriously, gave him a thumbs up. He took to the air, flew away a little way, then swooped directly at the portal, moving at speed. Vista saw him vanish into it, the bricks seemingly deforming to let him pass through unimpeded.

Thought so, she told herself, preparing to enter as well.

<><>​

There was a split-second of disorientation, then Aegis was through the wall, swooping into the interior of the warehouse itself. There was a twenty foot high set of shelves ahead; he changed direction sharply, turning and gaining altitude, then looking back to see if he could spot the ambusher. It had only been a matter of seconds since they'd been shot at; he should be next to where the portal was, or close by.

There was no-one in sight, not near the portal, not in either direction along the aisle between the wall and the shelves. Whoever it was had gotten out of sight really, really fast. Aegis frowned in puzzlement.

Vista came through next, looking around for potential danger. She also looked up, which impressed Aegis; so few people thought to look in that direction, even with flyers so commonplace.

“Can't see anyone!” he called to her. “Keep your eyes open -”

“Look out!” she yelled, pointing.

His path had just brought him up level with the top of the shelving; a dark figure lying there raised a stubby weapon of some sort -

<><>​

As soon as I had fired, I resisted the impulse to step through and hit them again. Against numerically superior foes, it was smarter to hit and run, keep them off balance. So instead, I borrowed Vista's power and stepped up on top of the two-storey shelves. Lying down, I waited for them to enter. It was the only sound tactical option they had left.

Aegis was a flyer; he would try to use the vertical space to his advantage. So all I had to do was wait for him to get up to my level. I cheated just a little; he was a bit outside the optimum range of my pistol, so I used Vista's power to reduce the range until it was about right. Then I fired.

This time it was a direct hit; the electrical arc caught him right in the chest. He convulsed and fell, either unconscious or stunned, I wasn't sure. Either way, he was out of the fight for the next few seconds. I wasn't worried about killing him; I had a really good read on his powerset, and a simple fall from twenty feet wouldn't even begin to be fatal. It might, however, serve to keep him down for a few more seconds, which was all to the good.

Which was a good thing, because I was going to need all my attention dealing with Vista.

<><>​

“Aegis!” screamed Vista; she exerted her power to widen the space between her and the shelves, so that if he tried to shoot her, he would have a harder time of it. At the same time, she expanded the shelves themselves, vertically. Normally, she wouldn't be able to do this sort of thing; in such warehouses, bugs abounded, and she could not manipulate space when a living thing was in it. But this warehouse was kept to 'clean room' standards, due to the multiplicity of extremely delicate electronic components that were stored here, and so insects were at a minimum.

So she drove the shelving up toward the ceiling; the idea was to pin the attacker between one and the other. Not fatally, just to hold him long enough to make sure that Aegis was okay.

Shelf met ceiling, and she held it there. Good. She hurried to Aegis' side, while pulling her phone out.

<><>​

I hadn't known what Vista was planning, but nor had I intended to stay on top of the shelves anyway. Flicking my focus from Vista to Aegis, I rolled off the far side of the shelves, even as they started moving upward at speed. As the power set engaged, I took flight and rocketed down the aisle.

As I rounded the end, I landed and shed my backpack and duffel bag. Peering cautiously around the shelving, I could see her standing over Aegis, looking around. I didn't dare crunch space between us, as she would probably pick it up, so I concentrated on Aegis' powers. After a few moments of experimentation, I figured out how to boost his hearing, by turning the skin on my hand to an analogue of an eardrum. Pulling off my glove and putting my hand out past the shelving, I caught her words.

“ - is down, a hit from an electrical discharge weapon. Not badly hurt, but he's going to be out of it for a little bit. One attacker, possibly flyer or teleporter. Have not seen the other two yet.”

There was an answer, but I couldn't hear it clearly.

“Understood. I've got the attacker pinned – or at least, I think I do – between the shelves and the ceiling. I'm not going to check – he's still got a ranged weapon. I'm going to get Aegis outside, to safety, then I'll guard the exit until he comes to.”

I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that.

I added vision to my fingertips and waited till she glanced away from me, then I switched to her powerset and crunched space between me and her. Then I ducked around the end of the shelving and ran straight at her.

When she turned back around, I was right there; I had let the space behind me relax to its normal shape, so for all she knew, I'd teleported into place. She went to jump back, to expand space between us, but it was too late; I had hold of her wrist.

She was fit, and she'd had training, but I was taller, stronger and – as skinny as I was – heavier. Also, I had longer arms, which meant more leverage. So I used the skills which I'd been learning with Über's power, locked her down, and then applied pressure to her carotid artery.

I had to admit, she was a fighter; she kicked and lunged and did everything in her power to throw me off balance or slam me into the wall. We did actually hit the wall a few times, despite being about ten feet away from it. But I was using Aegis' powers, to keep us in the same place, and to weather any incidental impacts, and so I lasted longer than she did.

I checked her pulse – strong and regular – and laid her down in the recovery position. “Right,” I murmured, pulling on my glove, then turned to check on Aegis.

Who was just then getting up.

Oh shit.

<><>​

Even as he came off the ground and literally flew at me – Christ, he's fast! - I drew my taser pistol and shot him. Centre mass, direct hit.

Only it did absolutely nothing.

I realised why an instant later; he'd just been shot by that same weapon. His body had adapted to get over the attack, and the adaptation was still in effect.

And then he hit me, and the pistol went flying. So did I. The only thing that kept me conscious was the fact that I had his powers, and so was just as durable as he was.

We squared off in midair; I decided to let him see that I could fly, because beating him would be extremely awkward, otherwise.

“She's okay,” I hastened to say, straight up. I was careful to deepen my voice. “Just unconscious. Sleeper hold.”

“Good,” he growled. “I'll only use one on you, then.”

I shook my head. “I can't let you do that.”

He showed his teeth; they were very white against his darker skin. He looked rather handsome, I thought. “I'm not actually giving you the choice.”

We came together in what would have been a bone-crunching impact if, at the last moment, I had not changed it into a mid-air judo throw. Aegis came out of it pinwheeling, and slammed into the wall; that was the bone-crunching impact.

He recovered quickly, and came at me again, albeit a little more cautiously. His grin, undaunted, shone in the dimness. “Just full of tricks, aren't you?”

I grinned back, but my balaclava was in the way. “Just try me.”

He kicked at me, which made a certain amount of sense; when you're flying, you don't need to keep your balance, and a leg is longer and has more leverage than an arm. But it's also clumsier, and once a kick is started, it's harder to stop. So I trapped his ankle, spun him around my head, and slammed him into the concrete floor.

He got up again; the impact would have severely injured an ordinary man, and I could see where bones were broken, but his grin was still there. All the same, I felt sick at what I was doing to him.

“Look, just stay down. We don't need to keep doing this.”

He shook his head. “I can't do that.”

I sighed. “I know. I had to try. I'm sorry.”

This time, he was even more cautious; we circled around each other for a moment, before he tried for a grapple; if he could get a good grip on me, his superior strength would probably win out against my speed.

But I was much better trained than he was, and I had a handle on all the same tricks that he used with his powers, plus a few more.

I let him grab my arm, and start to apply a lock. This doesn't work so well in the air, because the opponent has another direction he can move. But he would have applied it anyway, if I hadn't used his power to let my shoulder dislocate, then spun around to a position that he did not expect. Then I kneed him in the groin, very hard indeed.

His eyes crossed, and he let out a strangled moan. While he was thus occupied – I don't care how you can adapt your body, a strike to that particular point has to hurt – I pulled my arm free, clicked it back into place, then struck hard and fast. All the nerve clusters, one after the other. Overwhelming his body, his nervous system, with an influx of pain.

He went down.

Well, I had said sorry.

<><>​

While he was still adapting to that – and I had no doubt but that he would – I pulled all the zip-ties off of his belt, and tied him up with them, taking time to fasten him to the shelving. He would work his way out of multiple zip-ties, eventually, but not in the time frame I was worried about. And then I ran like hell.

“Player one, player two, are you there?” I called over the radio link. “This is player three.”

“Player three, this is player one. What is your status?” That was Über.

If I had been captured by the heroes, forced to talk on the radio, I had one of several duress codes I could use. Instead, I gave them the all-clear code. “Halo three. Repeat, Halo three. Time window is limited. Let's do our shopping and get out, over.”

“Player three, this is player two. Where are the heroes?”

“Player two, the heroes have been neutralised. Now stop talking and start grabbing.” I got back to where I had left my bags, and scooped them up. Then I headed to where the things I needed were being stored.

<><>​

Unfortunately, some of them were being stored in a time-locked vault. This was not controlled by the main security system; its timer was separate and hard-wired. It would not, could not, be opened until nine the next morning.

Unless, of course, someone had a power like Vista's.

Carefully, inch by inch, I reduced the size of the vault door, and increased the size of the doorway, until one no longer fit in the other. I could have done it faster, but I didn't want to jam anything, or cause tell-tale damage. Once the door was open, I went in there and stripped the shelves of what I needed. Then I had to put the door back the way it was.

“Why are you doing that?” demanded L33t; he, too, had gotten what he wanted from the vault. “Let's go!”

“I don't want them figuring out how I did it,” I murmured, concentrating. “Hax has gotta stay as hard to figure out as possible, for as long as possible.”

We were pushing close to what I considered a safe time frame by the time I finished; I'd had Über grab what else I wanted from the shelves in the meantime. And then we headed for the way out.

My taser pistol was half under a shelf, I picked it up and shoved it back in the holster.

My goggles and my power both noted that there were no capes within my range, but that meant nothing. The place could be swarming with PRT and regular police.

Only one way to find out.

The tip of my index finger, poked out through the wall, told me a worrying story.

“PRT and cops,” I muttered. “Capes too, but hanging back.”

“Fuck,” whined L33t. “This is your fucking fault.”

“Cool it,” I told him. “We can get out of this yet.”

“Yeah? How?”

I told him. They both stared at me in disbelief.

“You're shitting us,” declared Über.

In the end, they agreed to it, but we were cutting it way too fine. Aegis was awake, and straining at his bonds, and Vista was starting to stir as well.

<><>​

The PRT troops had just finished deploying and were ready to move in when the single dark-clad form streaked out through the portal frame. The figure – skinny, but clad in all-enveloping clothing – carried a single duffel bag over its shoulder. Before anyone could do more than shout and point, it was past them and gone. Velocity tried to give chase, but he lost the figure against the night sky almost immediately.

That left two perpetrators still in the building. The PRT moved in, to find Aegis and Vista; the latter was in the process of freeing the former. Master/Stranger protocols were employed, and the two Wards were determined to be who they said they were.

But despite an almost microscopic search of the rest of the building, no trace of the other two thieves was ever found.

One hour later, the portal frame ran out of power and ceased to work.

<><>​

The PRT were still milling around near the North Side storage facility when I landed a block away. I had to; my range was tenuous at best, and I was losing my link to Aegis. I unzipped the duffel bag, and first Über and then L33t climbed out. They brought their own duffels with them; I reached into the Vista-enlarged space and pulled my backpack out as well.

“That was seriously weird,” declared Über. “Can Vista do that all the time?”

I nodded. “It wears off after a while, though.”

L33t seemed to be staring at me. I glanced at him. “What?”

He took a deep breath. “I still think you're way too pushy, but that was awesome. You took on two different Wards and kicked their asses, all by yourself.” He hefted his duffel. “And with these components … the team of Über and L33t are gonna rock.”

Über gestured to me. “Über and L33t and Hax, bro.”

After a long moment, L33t nodded. “Über and L33t and Hax. Yeah. You did good, kid. Welcome to the team.”

Under my mask, I grinned. “It's good to be here.”

I had passed my baptism of fire; they had accepted me.

Now, all I had to do was get home before the PRT decided to pay me a visit.


End of Part Nine

Part Ten