Fluff

Chapter Thirty-Four - The Perfect Opportunity

This was it, the perfect opportunity.

"Ready?" he asked.

Next to him, Pinprick nodded. She was dressed similarly to him. All-black, a turtleneck with a tactical rig over it, some essentials tucked into small velcro-covered pouches. Her shirt was tucked into cargo pants which were in turn tucked into heavy boots.

Not the image of a villain, really, except for the mask.

Neither of them really cared much for the whole cops and robbers thing, with the silly costumes and over the top personas, but there was something to say about personalizing a new face. There was just something very... human about it.

Pinprick's mask was a pale grey oval, worn over a balaclava. It was covered in holes. Some were tiny little things, but nearer her eyes were larger ones, as big as quarters and surrounded by a smattering of smaller holes. It gave her decently unobstructed vision, like a knight's helmet, and the mask was made of a decently thick polymer able to take a blow.

His own wasn't at all the same.

He was, by the nature of his power, what the HRF would call a Gadgeteer. He made things. He'd made his own mask, and most of his gear, of course. It was all-black, with a wide visor that ran across his face. Within that were a few neat pieces of tech. Low-light vision, light augmentation, weak thermal. All switchable.

"How's your charge?" Pinprick asked.

"Good," he said. He rubbed his thighs together and felt the material build up a charge. The little flicks of static energy ran up some wires built into his pants and into a set of capacitors along his belt. He glanced down, checking the readout by the buckle, but it was as full as when he last looked. "There they are," he said.

Across the street, moving quickly, was a small group. Four figures, one slightly taller, though none of them were very large. A young woman, and two teenagers, moving with the quick, suspicious movements of someone up to no good.

If this Saint Arie was a normal city under normal circumstances, he'd maybe assume that they were just some girls out past their bedtime, scurrying home and hoping not to get caught.

That was far from the case, though, and with his low-light functioning at full power, he could make out the black domino masks across their faces.

They were running towards something, that much was clear. Possibly some of the other members of their team.

If he did things right, they wouldn't be making it.

Raising a hand to a small radio stuck to the webbing on his front, he touched the pad of a thumb to it, then used a secondary aspect of his power to power the device. "Matchstick, you ready?"

"Chrk--" was the reply, then a voice crackled through. "Ready."

The distortion was unfortunate, but the radios were of his own design, and while they wouldn't be impossible to intercept, he doubted the HRF was prepared for it.

"Alright, let's go," he said.

Pinprick nodded, then they started towards the edge of the roof they were both standing on. There was a winch stuck to one side of the rooftop, with an automatic pulley system and bars to grab onto. He took one side, Pinprick the other, and with a flex of his power, the winch let go and gently but quickly lowered them into an alleyway.

From there, they both activated a suit of minor powers. Minor Shadow Blend and Featherstep, mostly. Abilities they'd collected from the Endgame already and which helped them remain just a little more stealthy.

Moving to the mouth of the alley, they saw the four girls running by. They were moving more or less away from the HRF's main base within the Endgame, the place where, presumably, the main objective of the entire event was being guarded.

"Now," he whispered.

Pinprick nodded, then she reached down and pulled out a collection of small, stainless-steel needles. She always kept them clean for occasions like these.

He refocused on the little team of villains running along, but he was vaguely aware that Pinprick was about to use her power.

A trio of tiny portals opened, none of them larger than the nib of a pen. She could place those with extreme precision, though they couldn't be in anything. Still, that didn't matter with the way she liked to use her power.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Pinprick's hand twitched, the needles sliding forwards and into the portals.

One of the girls, the one at the very front, screamed, then almost tripped. She clutched at her side...

Pinprick's power triggered again, then again, targeting each of the girls in turn. She'd spent countless hours studying human anatomy and where a small pinprick-strike could disable a person. She was unnervingly good at it.

The four girls stumbled, some had their legs lock up, and combined with their quick forward momentum, that sent them stumbling to the ground.

He moved out, then, jogging out onto the street with Pinprick staying a few meters behind, still ready to hit them. "Good evening," he said. His mask toyed with his voice, adding a sibilant hiss to it. To anyone listening, he would sound as though he were speaking through an old CRT tv with poor reception, a static fuzz invading his every word.

The woman in the lead stood up, hand clutching the side of her knee. There was a little bit of blood there. Not very much, Pinprick hadn't gone lethal. Still, that wound would hopefully keep her down for a moment.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The Boss, he suspected. Their files on locals weren't that great, and it had been extra difficult to pinpoint this group's IDs because, as far as the HRF seemed to be concerned, they were all heroes.

That was quite the coup, he had to admit. Keeping a team of villains this large in the good books for so long? That wasn't an easy accomplishment. He wondered if they'd be able to keep it up. But that was just professional respect. "Fellow villains, my dear," he said before affecting a slight bow. "Now, surrender the item."

Judging from the way the girl shrank back, she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Boss?" one of the others asked. It was the wide-eyed one, with the brown hair. Dammit, he couldn't keep track of all their names.

"I'd make the choice quickly, if I were you," he said. "We only have so long before the--"

"Sisterportation: Teddy," the Boss said.

In a blink there was a new girl on the scene.

"Bear them!" the boss yelled.

He jumped back as the new girl grinned, then turned into a large bear and leapt towards him. He stumbled back, then heard the girls scream as Pinprick hit them again. But they were running... towards them.

He reached into a pocket and flicked an item out.

It hit the ground, then exploded, sending a wave of static energy outwards that wrapped around the bear, then pulled down, hard.

The bear roared as it was slammed onto the road.

His heart was thundering in his chest. It wasn't every day that someone had to deal with a bear in their face all of a sudden.

"Quick!" Pinprick hissed.

He nodded, then ran around the bear. The Boss was on the ground, crying as she clutched at her sides and curled her legs up. There were dozens of small holes punched into her outfit now.

One of the girls stood up, despite the pain, and jumped at him.

His gloves activated, sending out a wave of buzzing electrical energy out, entirely emptying one of his capacitors.

It struck the girl and-- she disappeared with a poof.

The same girl reappeared next to her twin, then scrambled after him, but she was too far.

He shoved the Boss over with a leg, cursed as she punched him in the calf and almost sent him down, but he was quick, and with only a bit of wrestling, he managed to pull a large, shiny orb from her jacket pocket.

A Robber has Robbed the Robbers! The Objective is now in the possession of the Villains!

"Let's go!" he shouted as he turned. The Boss grabbed his foot, and this time he tripped for real, but he managed to land well, rolled, then climbed back onto his feet to continue running. "Matchstick!"

The air filled with a thousand flames.

They were small things, no bigger than the flame of a match, but they burst into being across the entire street, thousands of them filling the air with light and sulfurous smoke. He ran through a tunnel left for him that quickly closed up and joined Pinprick, the orb tucked up against his side. "Let's move," he said.

He didn't need or want to stay here and find out what would happen once the villains started to adapt. Besides, they had their reward already.

***