Super Thieves

Carter

"I told you this would happen!" Andrew yelled from the cell across from me. Heather was timidly slumped against the wall in the cell next door to mine. The floors were cold and giant bullet proof windows kept us contained. Surprisingly enough, they weren't soundproof. Which probably meant any cameras or guards could hear us.

"Yes, you told me a million times. Can you shut up about it now?" she snapped back, fiddling with a small black chip in her hands. I could see her eyes darting around the walls and floors of the cell looking for anything that would be able to use a chip.

"Why didn't you guys leave last night? You should have left! You'd be halfway to the next artifact by now!"

"We weren't just going to leave you here."

Everybody went silent. Andrew paced back and forth in his cell and Heather had started to claw away at the metal paneling on the cell door. I just sat quietly with my back against the cold concrete wall of my cell. There's no hope of escape, so why even try. I doubt the chip Glow Woman gave to Heather will actually do anything, and Black Ice will soon have everything he needs to access the nuclear weapons inside of the base. We've officially got no more tricks up our sleeve.

"God damnit!" Heather yelled out with a frustrated huff, kicking the metal paneling and retreating against the wall of her cell, "we're never going to get out of here."

"You're just asking for someone to come down here and kick our asses," I chuckled to her. I stood from the floor and stretched my arms, carefully inspecting the red light on the door at the end of the hallway turn green, "look what you've done now."

"Only took you four hours to get their attention," Andrew laughed as he backed against the wall of his cell. The door at the end of the hall opened and Glow Woman entered the room with two other supers. The other two stood guard at the end of the hall way while Glow Woman made her way over to our cells, stopping in front of Andrew's.

"Birdman has suggested you be put on trial. Your hearing is tomorrow," she said simply to the three of us.

"What's the point in that?" I asked.

"He wants to make an example of you," Glow Woman answered with a small smile, "if you are convicted at that trial tomorrow, we have no hope of stopping Black Ice. I've gathered a few like minded heroes to make sure that trial doesn't happen."

"So we're just supposed to sit here while you go and play politics?" Andrew snapped. He walked right up to his cell wall and glared at Glow Woman.

"My orders were to escort you to your prison cells. Nobody ever told me I had to keep you here," Glow Woman chuckled with a clever smirk spreading across her face. She turned to face Heather and eyed the control panel on her cell door, "do you still have that chip I gave you?"

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

"It is, quite literally, your bargaining chip. If you ever cross paths with the NSL after you leave here, you trade that chip for your freedom."

"You didn't honor the last deal we made, how can I expect you to honor this one? The Shadow Broker might just have to release those military codes to teach you a lesson."

"I guess you'll just have to trust me," Glow Woman answered, "get to the teleporter in the lobby and it will send you to Seattle. I hope there's still time."

Glow Woman punched in the the release codes and the three of us took off running towards the security room. All of our confiscated gear was neatly packed on the interrogation table waiting for us to pick it up. Heather, Andrew, and I loaded up our backpacks faster than we ever had before, sprinting into the elevator and arriving at the main floor. It was surprisingly empty, few employees were sitting at their stations and no supers were flying around.

"Call for help! Shut off the teleporter!" a female voice screeched. The three of us made a break for it. Someone pulled and alarm and I could feel the force of a hundred heroes swooping in on our position. I stood with Heather and Andrew on the teleporter, but nothing was happening.

"Prepare for teleportation in three seconds," Glow Woman yelled among the chaos. The room started to fill with heroes, each of them shouting their own stupid one liners like "freeze", or "hands up", and even "stop right there criminal scum".

I guess three seconds is too long of a time for superheros to start firing off their powers, because I graciously flipped all of them the bird as we disappeared in a flash of white light.