The sound of Legit’s laugh has me pull my eyes off the girl with a scowl. His rolling timbre and clapping hands picking up right where I left off. I stuff the revolvers into a pocket of my jacket while turning sharply to face him. Annoyance no longer faked and quickly turning to true anger as I hold in the urge to start shouting at him for all the ways he’s already fucked this robbery. A flash of ice shooting up my hands when I let go of the revolvers inside my Pocket and then close my fingers around what I actually want.
The flash becomes a shiver that runs up my spin as I turn my back on the hostages, still not sure that I’ve removed them as a threat but certain that I need to act like I have. I keep my chin up and steps pointed as I stride around the final cabinet to reach Legit. His smile wide and open while the, now that I’m seeing it from this angle, clearly cracked bat is left on the table beside him. I shrug off his hands as he tries to grasp my shoulders, having to push him away more forcefully when he tries again while stepping close enough that I can whisper-shout directly into this face.
“Stop laughing! You were about to get shot, Legit. What the fuck were we thinking not taking the guns off them earlier? No, wait. What were you thinking? Crowd control was meant to be your part of this.”
He ignores my finger poking into the hard slab of muscle that is his chest, not reacting as I release all the built-up tension that I’d gained from bluffing the guard and nearly getting shot in the process.
“Chill Pocket, chill. We all make mistakes, right?”
My anger bleeds away when faced with the toothy wideness of his smile, the same one that had let him get away with all sorts of mischief back when we were kids. Still is. Though the mischief has certainly escalated. I step back with a huff, batting away his hands for a third time when he tries again to wrap them around my subtly shaking shoulders. I look back to the hostages again as I pull out our only spare bat from my Pocket. Offering it to him without looking as I move to swipe the broken one off the counter beside us.
“Come on, at this rate we might not even have time for all of the floor cabinets if we still want to avoid the mall’s own Meta-security.”
“Nah, I got a better idea. Pass me that ice-axe.”
He grabs my wrist as I go to take the broken bat, grin turning cocky as he wiggles his fingers towards the axe held under my arm. I pass it to him with a glare while releasing the broken bat. Feeling a little ridiculous as I step back and hold on to the spare, unsure how I should be holding it and so just stuffing the long piece of metal back into my Pocket.
My impatience rises as I watch Legit hold the cracked bat in his off hand while testing the ice axe’s weight. Tapping it against different parts of the spider-webbed glass with a slowness that makes me increasingly antsy. We’d already gotten lucky that this mall saw more issues with pickpockets than the kind of smash-and-grab operation we’re operating. It meant the guards here were aug’d for good eyes and network access rather than a fight. Still, I keep counting the seconds until we can expect someone who is ready for a fight to show up.
“Legit, we are runni-”
I flinch my arms up to cover my face as he swings the axe down on a corner of the case, pick shattering the glass in a flying rain of hexagonal shards. Wide-eyed with shock, I look back to see the spiderweb of cracks has been broken into jagged panes that he brushes away with a sweep of the axe’s pick.
“Come on then, Pocket. You wanna grab this stuff, or what?”
I rush over with another scowl to sweep the holo-rings he’s uncased into a single pile that I can just stuff into my Pocket through the jacket. Legit doesn’t wait for me, already moving on to the next case which he cracks open with far greater speed. The glass broken into a spiderweb with the first central blow from the increasingly broken bat and then shattered into panes after just a few precise taps of the axe.
My heart pounds louder with every case he shatters, first the pieces in the rooms centre then the floor to ceiling ones filled with more sparkly stones, gleaming metal and high-tech than I’ve ever touched before in my life. It only occurs to me somewhere around the halfway point that we’d been planning on only taking the jewellery in the central cases. The thought is brushed away though by the excitement of rushing to keep up with Legit’s glass smashing spree. Whatever application of his Power that he’s using now, it isn’t one we’d realised while planning this.
‘If we can take everything, then I might not need to do more than three or four more of these!’
Greed doesn’t take me completely though as, in moments of clarity between Pocketing more wealth than I ever imagined holding, I glance out the half-covered doors to the mall beyond. Mall security had clearly noticed us a while ago, right after the gun shot probably, and are now keeping people away from our spot on the second floor. A good thing at first as I spot them focusing on guiding away civilians and hopeful street reporters with too little sense. Now though, as I sweep up a bundle of Holo-Chokers and drop them down the front of my jacket and straight into my Pocket, I realise that I can’t see anyone at all.
I go to call out to Legit that something is wrong, stopping as I see he has piled up the last of the store’s contents onto the clerk’s counter. As quickly as I can, I drag my sleeve over the assorted necklaces, cufflinks, letter openers, token creches and rings as well as the assorted icons and loose stones. Looking up to see him lifting a safe from where it’s hidden under the counter top. The metal box almost too heavy even for him as he drops it onto the marble surface with an Oomph of effort. I stare at the thing confused before blinking up at his wide grin.
“I don’t have safecracking tools.”
He laughs, free and full-throated in that way that tells me his bright blue eyes are sparkling under his visor. My own expression staying confused until he leans himself over the safe while miming holding something across it with his hands. Confusion becomes embarrassment and I hurry to unzip my jacket while he vaults over the counter, slapping me on the shoulder as he keeps laughing on his way through the store.
“Don’t worry Pocket, I’ll always be here to keep you sharp!”
I mumble a reply as I drape myself over the safe, shifting around a little until I feel that no one can see its metal sides. I deposit the whole safe into my Pocket at once, almost falling face first onto the counter from the sudden lack of something to lean against. Saving myself by slamming my hand against the marble and wincing at the stinging sensation of doing so. Wiggling some sensation back into my fingers, I chew my lip while hurrying to rezip my jacket and rush over towards where Legit is basking in the light of the store’s centre.
Goosebumps prickle my skin, the cold sending a shiver down my back as I rub my arms against the sudden chill now clinging to me. Putting things into my Pocket isn’t nearly as bad as getting them out but big, heavy stuff is always at least a little chilling. I stop with another stronger shiver that has me shaking my head from the force of it, looking back up to see Legit licking his lips while grinning down at me. He meets my eyes with a sparkle that has me grinning back despite my best attempts to maintain some stoic annoyance at his own lack of professionalism.
“Helluva take, huh?”
“We’ve gotta get outta here first. And somethin’s goin’ on outside.” My accent slips back in as I keep shivering in a mix of cold and excitement. Legit’s grin only getting cockier as he wiggles the ice-axe and his now thoroughly dented and cracked bat towards me. I take the hint with a long-suffering sigh and swap them for the fresh bat from my Pocket, our only spare, while also starting to pull out the first step of our exit plan.
Legit takes hold of the grappling hook and the tightly bound climbing rope attached to it, his handling going from clumsy to masterful over the course of a few seconds as he starts looping it around his waist in a knot I can’t even begin to follow. He finishes by making a final loop and pulling it through to flap against the 66-jersey covering his chest and the shoulder pads underneath. He flashes me another smile from under the half motorcycle helmet and aviator’s combo he’d decided to go with as he does a final check of his rope work.
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‘At least he’s consistent in having terrible mask fashion sense.’
He spins the new bat in his hand, almost fumbling the catch in a moment that has my heart leaping into my throat, before he catches it by a single finger. Just laughing the near fumble off while he tries a few practice swipes all while quick stepping over to the entrance. He taps the bat against some of the counters in an off-key beat before at last tying it to the little loop of his camo pants built-in belt. Most of the huddled shoppers cringe away as he passes them, all except for the young guard still lightly trembling as he kneels in front of his partner. The man staring daggers into the ground beside Legit’s boots as he passes him, only looking away to glance at the shard of sharpened glass that Legit’s boot kicks to his side.
“Don’t.” I stare him down as I move to follow in Legit’s footsteps. Stuffing my arms elbow deep into the pockets of my jacket once I have his attention and forcing myself not to shiver as they slowly grow colder. He meets my eyes through the visor for only a moment before looking away, face scrunching up as he curls himself over the older guard’s body with a half-strangled sob. I can’t help the little thrill that goes through me at the sound, nor the smile I feel pull up the sides of my face as I pass him. A whimper from one of the teens draws my attention to the rest of the civilians, my smile curdling and good mood spoiled by the terror on their faces.
‘Wrong place, wrong time.’
I put the crowd out of my mind as I step past Legit, placing a hand on his arm to stop him from pushing the dumpster any further. The screech of his shifting it already having left two streaks of scratched marble and just enough room for me to slip between it and the glass door. I think better of trapping myself as I get closer and instead stand at the side to peer over the hunk of steel, my all of 5’3” height keeping me mostly hidden but making it a slight challenge to look over the thankfully emptied bin.
Rising up on tiptoes, I spot the mall’s own security taking cover on the other side of the atrium’s central hole. Around a dozen men in uniform, revolvers thankfully still holstered at their waist as they hold electrified truncheons and PAVA sprayers instead. All except one who’s armed with a bulky looking net launcher that has a garish advert plastered to the side. I recognise the make from searching online earlier about what we might be up against and so already know that it doesn’t have anywhere near the range to get across the atriums middle gap. In fact, unless they’re willing to fire at us with the store full of civilians behind, none of them have any chance of catching us from this distance.
It could just be they’re doing the smart thing and planning to claim they’d been guarding the stairs but not many Supes, except me unfortunately but they couldn’t know that, would flinch from a drop down from the second floor. A frown crosses my face as I wave Legit away from the dumpster yet again, impatient grumbling coming from behind me that I do my best to tune out while focusing on just exactly what has caught my attention.
‘Why do they keep looking to our right?’
My heart skips a beat as I finally clock what my unconscious has already realised, there are maintenance stairs to our right. Ones another team could use to get up right next to the entrance without us having any way to know. Any way that is, besides the diversionary team glancing over at the people about to do the real fighting every few seconds.
I swap sides to peer over to the right, pulling a small mirror I’d earlier tied to a stick out of my Pocket to poke through the gap between door and dumpster to try and catch some hint of who is waiting for us to leave. So long as they weren’t shooting back into the store, there wouldn’t be much chance of hitting the civvies once we left and my mind immediately goes to worries of vigilante firing squads or worse, the actual MEA.
I nearly drop the stick as I finally catch a glimpse of what’s waiting for us, face paling as I scoot back with a muffled yelp. Six men, all in padded clothes and chainmail with face obscuring visors. Two with bulky tanks on their backs and sprayers in their hands and four more with sparking man-catcher poles. I force my heart to go back to a more normal pace as I re-Pocket the mirror and move back to Legit’s side as quietly as I can. My initial shock had been from thinking they were the MEA themselves but the branding on their armour and their weapons of choice marked them as something far less disastrous. The mall’s own Meta Enforcement Squad, the on-site team, obviously arriving well ahead of the MEA’s own response time. Not a dead end but if we hadn’t got greedy for the wall cabinets and safe, we should’ve been able to avoid them.
“We cool, Pocket?”
“Corporate MES, from Maius Urbani, six of them, on the right. Two sprayers, rest have prongs. No EXO’s.”
Legit’s slightly concerned look immediately becomes another wide grin as he rolls his shoulders and bounces excitedly on his feet. His expression only widening as I frown at him and cross my arms in my best impression of a leaders pose. We’d never actually discussed who was in charge but given I’d done nearly all of the actual planning. It seems obvious who should decide our gameplan for what to do next.
“We’re not staying to fight. We’ve already cut this way too close.” He just nods at me with his hands raised placatingly, already stepping forward to set his shoulder against the dumpsters side in a perfect linebacker’s squat. My heart shoots right back up at the tensing in his legs.
“Hey wait, we need to plan for this. Legit!” My shout is covered by the screech of steel on stone as the dumpster rockets away from the door. Sliding off the raised step to crash down onto the marble floor with the sound of cracking stone. I barely get done flinching from the noise before Legit is grabbing me around the waist, not pausing at my shout or slapping hands before he charges out and through the double doors.
I grip on to his shoulder and pull my legs up to better use his side to shield me from the shattering glass. My other hand instinctively pulling a smoke grenade from my Pocket and popping the tab before I throw it ahead of us. Eyes wide under my visor as I see that Legit has torn the right-side door from its hinges. Now using the thing as a shield while he sprints us both towards the hole at the mall’s centre. Bright yellow streamers stick to the cracked glass as the two men with sprayers fire their knock-off Con-Lines at us in bursts. The long, flat strips of wet elastic immediately starting to dry and harden. Their shrinking making the unstuck side lash around wildly as it tries to find a surface to adhere to. Legit grunts with the weight as he throws the makeshift shield towards the MES team before the con-lines can get stuck to him or the floor.
The door flies through the air towards the two sprayer equipped men at the team’s front. Shouts of alarm rising over their fellows demands for surrender as they jump to the side and directly into the path of the other four. The shield almost reaches them before one of the lines finally catches on the floor. Sticking immediately and slamming the discarded shield down into the spot they’d just been with the shattering ring of glass. My eyes are still wide as we enter the smoke cloud that now obscures the railing. Legit pausing a moment to pass the grappling hook into his newly free hand before he attaches it to the railing and, without a word of warning, jumps over.
The belay device screeches as we fall, actual smoke rising from the rope as it extends above us in an arc that quickly reverses. The unravelling line turning our leap into the atriums centre into a backwards swing towards one of its adjoining corridors. I scream as we fall, fear of heights driving me to grip tighter onto Legit’s shoulder and almost making me forget my part in the plan's next step.
My arms feel as if they are about to freeze solid as I stuff them down the front of my jacket. Legit clinging tighter to my waist as I release him with another scream to reach deep into my Pocket, deeper than I have so far today. A moment later the front of my jacket starts to bulge outwards and I pull my hands free to try and unzip it before it breaks. My numb fingers fumble the zip and I can only shout in annoyance as the front of the motorbike rips it open.
I give up with the zip, just focusing on grabbing onto the back of the falling vehicle as Legit lets go of my waist. A twist of the rope sends him forward into the driver’s spot before he pulls the cord flapping against his chest and so causes the entire harness to fall off behind him. We land already moving, the bike bouncing only a little as Legit guns the engine and the momentum of our descent is transformed into speed for our escape.
The tires screech on the smooth floor of the mall, the bike wobbling dangerously as it accelerates before Legit gets it under control with a casual shift of his weight. Pushing himself down for a moment to force the tires to get more friction which then sends us roaring away from the shouts of the two security teams up above us. I settle myself more comfortably on the seat behind him, giving up on trying to re-zip my broken jacket and just letting it flap open as the shops race by to either side. Weekend shoppers who hadn’t felt the need to evacuate beyond ducking into one of the many over-priced department stores for a little mid-crisis shopping stare out at us from behind their glass walls.
A hundred eyes and almost as many cameras follow us with shocked, scared or even a few excited faces behind them, each one giving a new jolt of adrenaline to my fluttering heart. Each one pumping a little more riotous heat into my blood and pushing away the chill of accessing my Pocket so many times. I lean back to better feel the rushing air as Legit slaloms around a line of benches in the corridor’s centre, the showboating idiot finishing by jumping the bike onto the rim of a projector stand with a perfectly timed hop.
The sudden jump has me grabbing the backrest behind me with a yelp to avoid being bounced off. Vision going white as we pass directly through the giant floating hologram of Arcadia’s golden form. My heart in my throat for only a moment before annoyance overtakes fear on hearing Legit laughing in front of me. His grin angled back towards me in the reflection of the wing mirrors.
“Asshole! I almost fell!”
“I’d come back for ya’ Pocket!”
He whips the back of the bike around in a turn that pivots us on just the front wheel, the manoeuvre having me grab onto his shoulders as my head is flung back and forth before I can reply. The movement shakes my hair loose from where it’s tucked under the half ski mask. A good portion of the no longer covered strands slipping out to stream behind me in a tail that I can soon feel pulled near horizontal as we speed towards the mall’s exit.
The false, artificial light of the mall starts to give way to the golden sunlight of mid-morning as we get nearer to the sounds of the city beyond. The sky having not changed since we entered just a few minutes and a lifetime ago. The second circle being far less subject to the sudden weather changes of those circles further away from the Nail. I feel a hiccupping laugh start to bubble up from my chest as Legit revs the bike higher and pops a wheelie just in time for us to roar out through the open doors. The bikes sudden appearance sending a few unprepared guards and a small crowd of complaining shoppers scattering away from us.
The bike’s front wheel slams back down onto tarmac as Legit turns us onto a side-street that will lead us towards one of the shrinking industrial zones of the second ring. More screams and shouts following as I hear sirens approaching in the distance, their direction telling me at once that the MEA are on the wrong side of the mall to catch us.
‘Hah, I was right. They did come from the side closer to the centre.’
A weight leaves my shoulders that I hadn’t even realised I was carrying as I stand from the bikes back. Laughter going from chuckles and hiccups to something loud and fierce as I release Legit’s shoulders to shake out the rest of my hair. Raising my arms up beside me and splaying my fingers to better feel the rush of the wind as it streams around me. The whipping air against my face, the heat of the sun warming my skin, the sound of my jacket and hair flapping along behind me as I open my eyes as wide as they will go. Leaning back to look towards the encroaching line of mega-buildings filled with those happy to bow and scrape for what scraps the city and its rulers will give them. All of it makes this moment something that I never want to end.
We did it. We’d need to do it at least three or four more times before I have enough for tuition but, for now…
‘We’re villains, we’re about to be rich and we’re free.’
I barely have time to finish the thought before a far too chipper voice breaks me from the fleeting bliss.
“Hold up there you Nere-do-wells! I’ve got a message from the new net’s favourite hero, Pinball!”
