Super Thieves

Heather

It would've been so easy to leave with Carter last night. To sneak onto a jet and get the hell out of here. But I could never do that to Andrew. And knowing him, he probably was sitting in his hospital bed begging us to escape and leave him here. I didn't know how much Andrew really meant to me until I was watching Black Ice beat the shit out of him. Running to protect him was just an instinct that felt right, no matter how many times I'd thought of shooting him in the face. Sometimes I hate Andrew's guts, but he's like that big brother you hate with a passion but tolerate because you like them just a little bit. However, that leaves me with having to figure out a way to escape being arrested. There's no way we can break out of NSL prison cells. And I doubt there are any superheroes here who would take pity on three professional thieves.

"We should head down to Andrew," Carter groaned as he sat up on the couch. I lifted my head, which had been resting on his chest, and stretched my arms out. I don't remember going to sleep like that, but I'm not complaining. I brushed out my tangled hair and pulled it back into a sloppy pony tail, slipping on my black hoodie and lacing up my combat boots. Carter ran his hands through his hair and slipped a black long sleeve over his tank top. There was no point in taking weapons with us, or even our evidence. No matter what we're ending up in prison cells.

I led the way out of our quarters and to the elevator. Two superheroes I'd never met before followed us in and rode with us to the infirmary level. Andrew was standing outside of his hospital room dressed in his usual black jeans and t-shirt. Glow Woman was next to him, in full superhero attire. Her emerald green bodysuit glittered from the light of her radiating skin underneath.

"I'll be escorting you three to the conference room," she said to us with a smile before looking at the other two heroes with a serious glare, "I'll take it from here."

They backed off and Glow Woman led the way to the elevator. She leaned in close to me as we walked, slipping something small into my hand. It felt like a computer chip.

"I hope you don't have a habit of swallowing small things," she whispered into my ear, pushing a button in the elevator that lifted us to the conference level. I got the hint and slipped the chip into my mouth and hit it under my tongue, hopefully I'll be able to talk normally if I'm asked any questions.

The Founding Five weren't even in the room, it was only Birdman sitting comfortably in one of the conference chairs. He had the stupidest, smug little grin on his face. If you could even call it a grin, I'm not sure how you can smile when you've got a beak for a mouth. I used to love birds, ravens especially, but this asshole has officially ruined all things that chirp for me. Now that I think about it, I wonder if he chirps. I bet he gets off to being fed crackers, stupid prick.

"Times up, what have you found?" he said with his stupid bird face grin.

"One potential location is in North Korea, and another in Australia," Carter said simply, "if we leave now we might get there before Black Ice does."

"I will send my agents straight away," he chuckled slyly. He thinks he's clever. I bet he looks at his own shit and sends photographs to his mom. Wait, he leaves his shit displayed on all of the jets parked in the base.

"You're not sending us?" Andrew said sarcastically.

"You three have been a great help, but unfortunately your usefulness has run out," he snapped. I can't but imagine one of those cheesy Indiana Jones movies where the "real" villain suddenly reveals himself. I guess we're the villains here though, we do steal for a living. And what does he do? Probably terrorizes children for bread crumbs.

"Oh no, I never saw this coming," Carter chuckled as he rolled his eyes.

"Glow Woman, escort them to their cells."

I leaned on the table and stared deep into the pits of his soul. With all the venom and anger I could muster, I stared the bastard down as if I has just scrambled and eaten one of his unborn children.

"Bird face," I spat. Andrew almost lost it and Carter just stared at me as if I were insane, "I hope your wife lays eggs, because I sure do love omelettes."

"Very threatening, goodbye," Birdman replied with an eye role. He was trying to play it cool, but I could see a glint of fear in his eyes. He probably was expecting me to make some threat about killing Black Ice and then killing him, not eating his unborn children.

Glow Woman escorted us out of the room and into the elevator. I still had the chip she gave me tucked on the inside of my cheek. Hopefully it's a master switch that will disable the cell doors or something, or maybe it'll blow up and I'll die. Anything is fair game at this point.

We arrived at the processing room in their prison below the base. They didn't even bother making us change into the prison uniforms, all they did was scan us for weapons or gadgets and then sent us in one by one to an interrogation room. I could hear what they were asking through a monitor in the hallway we were waiting in.

"Name?" someone asked.

"Andrew Jacobs."

"Age?"

"Thirty-one."

"Any super powers to declare before we put you through testing?"

"None."

"Please wait with the security officers to be escorted to your cell."

They were building us into their system. That's not awful, since they don't know anything about who we really are and it's ridiculously easy to delete files from their databases. Carter was the next one to be sent in.

"Name?" the voice on the monitor said.

"Carter Kingpin."

"Age?"

"Twenty-two."

"Any super powers to declare before we put you through testing?"

"None."

"Wait in the hallway please."

Carter came out and I was brought in. Glow Woman's chip was still safely tucked in the side of my cheek, hidden from the man across from me's view.

"Name?" he asked in his boring, monotone voice.

"Heather Knox."

"Age?"

"Twenty."

"Any super powers to declare?" he sounded as if he was getting tired from doing this for five minutes.

"I've got some pretty fine tits."

"Funny. Please go back to the hallway to be escorted to your cell."

He said it as if two security guards weren't grabbing my handcuffed arms and dragging me out of the room.