Super Thieves

Carter

"Are you sure this is the place?" Heather asked me, sipping the rest of some fancy drink she had ordered from a stand down the street.

"I'm positive," I replied with a smile. I couldn't help but notice her shoulders and face seemed a little burnt, "you're lookin a little red there. Forgot your sunscreen?"

"So you're looking at my bathing suit now?" she said with a small smirk and taking a step closer to me.

"I know you've been looking at mine."

"You're a big man, it's hard not to look."

"So that's why your eyes hang so low."

"Touche, Mr. Kingpin," Heather chuckled, totally unfazed by anything I had said. She walked away towards the beach, her blonde hair blowing in the wind behind her.

We always flirt back and forth a little but I think it's mostly a joke. On her part at least. I thought Heather was the most beautiful girl I had met when I met her. Piercing green eyes, silky blonde hair, the brains of Einstein, and that deadly smile. I could tell she never wanted to be more than friends back when we first met, part of it is probably because I was a total stranger joining her gang by chance. Now I'm not so sure. I think it's a joke, I've been taking it as a joke for years.

Andrew was busy scouting the area so what's the harm of having a few drinks? I'm 22, it's the one thing I do legally. I followed Heather to what appeared to be a street bar along the beach side. She wrapped her towel up around herself to try and be a little bit more modest for whatever reason. I took a seat next to her and eyed the crowed, mostly scanning for undercover heroes or incognito villains. Usually you can tell because of the glowing skin, or the purple hair, or the costumes, but there are a fair amount of villains who still know how to hide in plain sight.

"Gin and tonic, extra lime," Heather said to the bartender before smiling over at me, "care to join me for a drink?"

"Shouldn't you be the sober one?" I laughed quietly.

"I need five shots of vodka to get buzzed, two gins ain't gonna do shit," Heather chuckled back. The bartender handed her the drink and we got up to roam the beach some more.

Heather didn't sip it for a very long time, in fact she didn't take a drink at all.

"Not what you ordered?" I said as we walked together.

"They put a pink umbrella in it, you don't drink it when there's a pink umbrella in it," Heather replied simply, pouring the drink into the sand once we were far enough from the bar.

"Why is that?"

"Human trafficking business. All the pink umbrella drinks are spiked. Did you not notice the five supers sitting in there with us?"

I must be off my game if I didn't notice any supers in there. Either that or Heather has the power of super detection.

I'm just off my game.

"Are you sure you're the sober one?" Heather laughed.

"Supers in the area, job might've just got more difficult," Andrew said over the radio. I was beginning to wonder where he had gone, it'd been nearly an hour since we last heard from him.

"I counted five in the bar on the beach. I think they're here to stop that human trafficking business," Heather replied quietly.

"Or they're waiting for Black Ice," I said just as softly.

"Let's assume both. I'm almost done getting the museum schematics, meet back at the hotel in half an hour," Andrew said quickly, "going silent."

Heather and I kept walking back and forth along the beach side not saying a word to each other. She's the one who finally broke the long silence.

"I've been thinking about hiding the piece we stole and not getting involved at all," she said quietly.

"We don't have to get involved, we just have to get the pieces before the NSL or Black Ice does," I replied with a chuckle.

"It's never that simple. Andrew thinks we should find all of the pieces and keep the battery for ourselves, or at least destroy it. I think we should just remove ourselves from the situation entirely and hide the piece we found," Heather said to me, "what do you think we should do?"

Anybody asking me what I think of our next course of action is entirely new to me. I usually just let Andrew and Heather handle the nitty gritty planning stuff. My only real role is to provide information and stop them from killing each other, not make decisions.

"Well, we don't know what the Quantum Battery is even made up of so we don't know if it's easy to find replacement parts or not. But keeping the whole battery might attract unwanted attention," I responded, "I think we should take this second piece and whatever we can find in the museum that relates to the Quantum Battery. Too much information can't hurt right?"

The two of us went silent again. Heather led the way back towards the bar area where a car would be hopefully waiting to take us back to the hotel. Andrew taught us how to hack, how to shoot a gun, how to steal, but never thought he should teach us how to drive. I mean I could get us where we need to be but it won't be anywhere near quiet or subtle.

"I'll secure the piece tonight. You head to the offices and grab everything you can on the battery or the weapons base," Heather whispered as we stepped into the back of the taxi that was waiting for us.