Super Thieves

Carter

If it were anybody else, they would have backed out a long time ago. It takes some serious balls and a little bit of insanity to think we can pull something like this off.

I slowly made my way to my target without trying to make too much noise. I have no idea if vents are soundproof or not, Heather's usually the one hiding out up here when we're on jobs. Believe it or not it actually helps to imagine this as just another job. Just another job, we're going to cause just another distraction, call in just another few people for help, and grab just another bunch of artifacts. And afterwards we're going to sprint off into the night back to the safety of some hotel somewhere.

"Checking my comms. Are the heroes patched in?" I whispered as I crawled along.

"We are in position. Headquarters is on standby until those beacons are set," Glow Woman said in her typical happy tone, "waiting on your signal, Carter."

"Carter, you'll be dropping into a storage room. Be prepared work quick," Heather mumbled into the radio.

It was hard moving forward. I felt like I was making too much noise, but also like I was moving too slow. My job is the most important one in the operation, without my distraction Heather and Andrew will be swarmed in seconds. I had already started to come up with my plan of attack in my mind as I crawled through the vents. It won't take and entire case of bombs to blow that wall, maybe just four or five. I can toss a few extras further down the vent shaft before I detonate the wall and cause a little more damage. More explosions means less heat on the other two right? My watch started to beep and I saw a grating in the floor of the vent, there were cases and boxes piled up against the walls of the room.

"Heather, I'm here. Is there an alarm on the grate?" I whispered, preparing my pistol and knife.

"Scan it with your watch," she responded in an almost silent whisper. I did as she said, a small flash ran over the grate and a green light glowed in the center of the watch.

"Green means go?" I asked with a small chuckle.

"I hope it does," Heather said sarcastically over the radio. I quietly popped the grate out of its paneling and then rolled two bombs as far as I could down the vent shaft. Sucking in a deep breath, I fell out onto some boxes below. The landing wasn't as smooth as it could have been but it seemed to be fairly silent. I quickly got to work priming the bombs as I waited for Andrew's signal.

"Bombs are primed, how's it looking Andrew?" I whispered. There were some boxes stacked in the far corner of the room. Seemed like decent enough cover.

"I'm almost to the command center," he responded as I took cover behind the boxes, "Heather, I need this grate unlocked."

"Done," she responded.

I counted the seconds and listened to the sounds in the hallway as Andrew and Heather mumbled back and forth over the radio. Glow Woman chimed in and gave a few status updates on what it looked like outside of the base. Nobody even know's we're here. Yet. Andrew's radio eventually went silent and I said a quick prayer on his behalf. Almost six minutes of radio silence had passed. Not a great sign.

"Last beacon going up now," Andrew said in between pants, "goddamn those guys are something else. Don't underestimate the foot soldiers. They pack a punch even if they are sloppy. Shit I'm too old for this."

"Blowing the wall," I replied. My thumb came down on the detonator and the sound of an explosion mixed with the piercing wail of an alarm rang through my ears. The boxes had done their job and protected me from the impact of the explosion, but they hadn't done a great job of not crushing my legs against my chest. The blast had shifted them back against me and nearly flattened me to the wall.

The alarm was still blaring and Glow Woman and her team had already blaster their way through the storage room wall, taking on anything that moved. I forced myself back to my feet and readied my pistol.

"Reinforcements are arriving in t-minus three seconds," Andrew shouted over the radio. Gun shots followed before he went silent. I joined in on the fight with the heroes, shooting blindly at anything holding a gun. Andrew was visible from the ground floor, there were several rapid flashes of light in the command center. And with each one another superhero appeared in the room with him.

The fight seemed to be going mostly our way. I stuck behind cover and picked my targets while the heroes did most of the heavy lifting. The windows in the command center had been broken and our team over heroes dropped down so aid in the battle. Andrew flew down with one of them, quickly running over and taking cover with me.

"You weren't kidding about them being somewhat decent," I laughed, dropping the empty clip out of my pistol and loading in a new one.

"Heather's been pretty quiet. Maybe we should go look for her?" He shouted over all of the noise.

"She's got this. Let's take out as many of these assholes as we can before she gets down here," I yelled back. He wasn't totally wrong, Heather had gone abnormally quiet. Usually she's giving us play by play updates. Then again, she is sneaking into wherever they're keeping the battery pieces.

Black Ice's friends from Nevada decided to show up late to the party, but there were more than enough heroes to take them on. The villains didn't stand a chance. In fact, I only remember seeing them on the battle field together once before they'd disappeared.

"Command center. Now. We have to stop Black Ice before he sets off the self destruct," Heather shouted over the radio. She sounded in pain and badly injured, "let the heroes handle everyone else. Get to the command center."

"You heard the lady! Move it!" Glow Woman yelled, flying over to where Andrew and I had been firing from, "I'll even give you a lift!"