The Library of Powers

Chapter 7: Part 3

Samantha Quincy was rummaging through the office of Johnathan, Selina's father. She had already upturned the numerous cabinets that lined the back wall of his office, most containing various legal forms or family mementos. She left those alone, and after she had opened the final drawer, she turned to face her last option.

The safe. It was a light grey, electronic keypad DH-300 model, designed specifically to keep people with powers from opening it. Luckily, she had no such power. Unluckily, it was still a hard safe to crack regardless. She kneeled down in front of it, running her fingers over the rough, thick paint hiding the metal casing. Giving it a shove, it was clearly bolted to the floor. She hadn't expected anything less. Rustling through her backpack, she found the required equipment to crack the safe. It was a bulky plastic sheet over a picture frame, with a large coin-shaped magnet in the center. Samantha didn't pretend to know how it worked, just that it did, and that it didn't trip the power sensor. She had it on loan from Marc, the semi-scrupulous Super equipment dealer down in Old Vera. As long as she wasn't caught using it, they wouldn't have any problems. In fact, he had told her upon receiving the tool that it would be better she destroy it and pay the hefty replacement fine then have her caught with it. Equipment, even one of a kind ones, could be replaced. Reputation, however, that was trickier to rebuild.

Samantha fixed it to the safe with painter's tape and watched it work, the cylindrical magnet sliding along the plastic sheet, almost like magic. In fact, it probably was magic. She left it alone, giving the room one last once-over. A watched pot never boils, a watched mysterious device even less so. The annoyingly regal office smelled of lilacs and other essential oils, a combination that Samantha found strange, to say the least. In fact, she had found a whole drawer of incense on her hunt through them, but whatever, she wasn't going to judge. She sat on the floor, her back against the left side of Mr. Demarcson's desk, looking out his window into the night sky. It had started to rain. Just a slight drizzle, but Sam wished she could hear it on the roof. Whatever slight pinging there might have been was drowned out by the tumultuous roar of the party downstairs. Well, she was happy up here. Alone with her thoughts, in the company of the rain.

Which was interrupted by a girl barging right through the door into the office, uninvited and unwelcome. It also meant Chase let someone get past him, which was quite the opposite of what he was supposed to do. It was a classmate of hers, but she couldn't place a name.

The girl darted her eyes around the room, glancing over everything as if she was looking for some incriminating evidence. Which Samantha realized too late, was exactly what she was doing. The girl gasped and pointed at the safe cracking tool still chugging away. "Where did you get that!" she shouted.

"Get out of here, before I make you get out," Sam replied, quite proud of how intimidating she sounded.

"No no no, I've finally caught you, Samantha. You're going down!" the girl responded.

Sam got up from the ground, shaking her head at her verbal attacker (and most likely soon to be physical attacker). "How do you know who I am? This isn't what it looks like."

"You mean this isn't a budding supervillain's heist?" The girl responded in a snarky yet sincere way. It was a tone of voice Sam vaguely recognized. Suddenly, Sam knew who her intruder was.

"Okay, it's exactly what it looks like. You're Ivory, right?"

"Not important. What's important is that you serve justice," Ivory declared, pulling her tool off the safe, "And return my artifact!"

"Yours?" Samantha by this point knew the plan was over, now she was biding her time to find a way around Ivory and out of the house. No way in hell was she using the window. "Well, then, you can have it back!"

Sam ran towards the smaller girl, hoping to shove her to the ground, maybe even grabbing the safe tool in the confusion. But, as she neared her, Ivory pulled out a small plastic tube, topped with the molded head of Kermit the Frog. Is that a PEZ dispenser?

It was. However, when Ivory opened it, instead of PEZ coming out, a flimsy blue line of energy emitted from Kermit's maw. And before Sam could do anything to block or dodge, she felt a faint pressure all around her, constricting her body until she could no longer move, in the not very graceful pose of mid-step. Ivory smiled and walked closer to Sam. "Alright, now you have to answer my questions. Where did you get the artifact?"

"Why do you keep calling it that?"

"Because that's what it is!"

"I got it from Marc's Super Mart!"

"That damn liar. He said he wouldn't give it to a supervillain. It was my only stipulation!" Ivory threw the PEZ dispenser onto the ground, the energy field propelling Sam to the very same floor with it. She landed at an awkward angle, and let out a yelp of pain. Ivory instantly regretted her action, coming over to help Sam.

"Oh no, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" she consoled, a worried look on her face. Samantha took the opportunity to tackle Sam, throwing her to the ground. Now having the upper hand (both literally and figuratively), Sam searched for the strange PEZ dispenser Ivory had dropped. As she grasped around, still holding Ivory down, she heard the door creak open once again. If she had thought her last intruder was problematic, this one, combined with their precarious positions, was even worse.

"Ooohhh. Hey Sam," came the voice of Jeremy, the person who had invited Sam and Chase to the party. He closed the door to only a small crack, and told them "I'll just leave you two alone, okay? Have fun!" He then abruptly slammed the door, leaving Samantha in a state of shock. If people didn't think she was a lesbian earlier, they would definitely now. Shit, she would have to talk to him later.

And then one of her hands found Kermit. She leaped off Ivory, opening the dispenser and watching the blue light encase her. "Haha!" she laughed, victorious. Ivory struggled for a moment, then just stared at Sam. "I'm really sorry," she said.

"For what? Throwing me on the ground? Saying you were gonna arrest me?"

"The first one. I still hope to do the other."

"At least you're honest. Then again, I don't think either will be happening anytime soon. Now you'll answer my questions. What the hell is an artifact? Did you make my tool?"

Ivory rolled her eyes. "You obviously haven't been paying attention in Enhanced People's History. An artifact is any magical object made naturally or by accident. I didn't make them, I found them."

"How?"

"I'm not going to answer that."

"Really?" Samantha put a foot over the tool, lying limply on the ground. "If you don't care so much, would you mind if I destroyed your precious artifact?"

Ivory made a shocked face, whispering "You wouldn't."

"Oh, I would," Sam slammed her foot down, shattering the frame into two. The tool faded out of existence, leaving behind no trace that it was once there. To Sam's immense confusion, Ivory started laughing maniacally.

"I can't believe you fell for that! Now you can't use it!" she snorted, still laughing.

"Yeah, well," Sam was flustered, but knew it was still the right decision, "Now you don't have any proof I was doing something illegal!"

Ivory dropped the laugh and bit her lower lip. "Shit, you're right."

"I know. Now, how about I let you go, we part ways, and forget this ever happened?"

"Can I get my PEZ back?"

"No."

"Fair. You've beaten me this time, Samantha, but I'll be back!"

Samantha deactivated the PEZ dispenser and put it in her backpack, throwing the backpack over her shoulder. "Call me Sam," she said, and disappeared out the door.