Erika blinked as the man crumbled bonelessly to the ground, his lit cigarette tumbling from unmoving fingers as she instinctively closed the notification. Staring at the man, she started noticing things. His eyes stared blankly up at her, frozen in surprise, his chest unmoving. Erika’s stomach started to rumble uncomfortably, an acrid taste biting at the back of her throat. Fuck.
Numbly, Erika started to search the man’s pockets. Half a pack of cigarettes. A lighter. A phone. A keycard. She might need that. Shoving the keycard into her jacket pocket, she looked back at the man and eyed the gear on him. The thought of doing in real life what came naturally in video games sickened her, but she didn’t stop to dwell on it as she took his weapons, though she stopped at taking the man’s uniform. It wouldn’t have fit her anyways.
After taking what she thought she might need, Erika dragged the surprisingly heavy body back down the trail and shoved it into the bushes before sneaking back into the clearing. It was still deserted, the hidden door still open and lighting up the place. Swallowing back the acrid taste in her mouth, she fidgeted as she tried to get comfortable with the unfamiliar weight of the weapon belt resting against her hips and tried to cradle the rifle like she’d seen people do in movies and video games. She was wasting time. Time Mary didn’t have. Squeezing the grips on her stolen rifle, she headed into the base.
***
“Hostage situation in the hills behind Punchbowl. Get a team to meet me ASAP,” Beth barked into her phone as she threw on her uniform. Unlike the paramedic’s uniform meant more for saving lives, this one was custom made for battle. Beth experimentally flexed her muscles, checking mobility in the form fitting suit, its nanites and advanced materials stretching and moving comfortably, but strong enough to practically ignore just about anything anyone could throw at her short of a tank. She’d be fine if a tank shot her, but not if someone threw it at her.
“Got it, transport en route to your location. 5 minutes out,” a robotic voice replied.
Beth nodded to herself as she saw another message pop up from her latest recruit. “Too long. Doing something stupid.”
“Fuck. Tell transpo to cut that time in half.”
***
The brightly lit hallways of the hidden base were like something out of a sci-fi movie, the bright fluorescent lights reflecting off the metal panels of the wall. Simple rubber mats like the ones they’d had behind the counter at the cafe covered the floors. It felt less like some super villain’s secret base and more like a spaceship. At least there were signs on the wall pointing the way to different places. Three different laboratories, a security room, a mainframe, a barracks, a hangar, a vault. But none of that mattered to her. She only cared about getting to her friend.
She’d passed several sealed doors that had key card readers on them, but she ignored them as she followed the surprisingly helpful signs posted on the wall. It only took her a couple minutes to find the sealed door helpfully labeled “Jail,” though those minutes were tense as Erika’s head moved on a swivel, constantly looking for anyone who might pop out at her. But the base seemed deserted.
Standing in front of the door, Erika pulled her stolen keycard out of her pocket and swiped it on the card reader. The plastic console let out a cheery beep as the light flashed from red to green before the metal door slid open with a fancy sounding whoosh.
“Damn it’s about time you finished your smoke— What the fuck?!” The man who’d been carrying Mary looked up at Erika for a moment, his eyes widening as he saw her point her rifle at him.
Erika eyed the man for a moment, her eyes flicking to the jail cell next to him where she could see Mary lying on the floor in a small cell. Flicking her eyes back to the man, her heart leapt into her throat as he started to reach for his pistol. As if everything were in slow motion, she saw his hand tighten around the grip of his pistol as she pulled the trigger, bracing herself for the kick of the rifle against her shoulder.
It didn’t come.
“There’s a safety, bitch!” The man laughed as he drew his pistol.
Giving up on trying to fire, Erika threw the rifle at the man and charged, causing him to hesitate and flinch back at the weapon flying at him. In what felt like less than a blink, she cleared the ten feet between them, her hand reaching out for his wrist as she tackled him to the ground. A loud popping sound filled the space as the gun went off next to her head as they fought for control of the weapon. A fist glanced off her jaw, the pain noticeable but muted. The man was strong and experienced, but Erika with her power and stat points was stronger. Returning the favor, Erika drove her fist into the man’s jaw and marveled as he went limp, his eyes rolling up into his head as she knocked him out.
*Ding!* You have defeated Human Thug (Class F) x1! You have gained 500 EXP! Congratulations!
Gasping for breath, Erika pushed the man’s body off her her and scrambled upright, grabbing the man’s pistol before rushing over to Mary’s cell. A quick swipe of her stolen keycard opened it and she knelt before her friend to shake her. “Mary, wake up! We need to get out of here!”
“Mwuh…huh? Mmreri…?” she mumbled sleepily, her eyes fluttering.
“Yeah I’m here! Get up!” Without waiting for a response, Erika grabbed her friend by the wrist and hauled her to her feet, marveling at how easy it was.
The forced movement seemed to wake Mary up as she groggily looked around the jail. “Where are… oh fuck,” she gasped. “Eri why are you here?! You can’t be here! We need to go!”
“You asked for help, so I came.”
Shaking her head, Mary stumbled over to the downed man and started stripping off his gear. “Sorry I dragged you into this mess Eri,” she said hoarsely as she buckled the man’s belt around her hips and picked up his rifle. “I shouldn’t have. It’s dangerous here and now you’re stuck in this mess with me and—” Mary’s teeth clacked as she snapped her mouth shut and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “Thank you,” she whispered, opening her eyes again. Cradling the rifle in her arms, she looked at Erika, then at the door, and back to the downed man. “You should take the other rifle,” she said, pointing at the weapon Erika had thrown at the man.
Nodding, Erika grabbed the weapon and held it uncertainly, remembering how it wouldn’t fire when she’d tried to use it. Other thoughts quickly surfaced about how quickly she’d tried to kill the man right after killing another, but she pushed those thoughts down. Now wasn’t the time for that.
As if her friend could see her confusion, Mary pointed at a little switch above the trigger on her rifle. “This is the safety for it. All the way up and it won’t fire, halfway down for semi-auto, and all the way down for full-auto. Don’t point it at anyone unless you wanna to shoot.”
Nodding, Erika fiddled with the lever while pointing it away from them both, feeling the easy way she could flick the switch with her thumb. Up for safe, halfway for a single shot, down for automatic, she thought to herself.
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“Wha–“ Looking up at Mary, Erika started to ask a question, only for a loud klaxon to cut her off while red flashing lights lit up the room.
“Intruder alert! Intruder alert! All personnel prepare for security lockdown!”
Hearing a scuffing sound, Erika whipped her head around to see the guard she’d knocked out pulling himself up using a security panel set into the wall.
“Intruders in the jail! The temp is—” he started to yell into the panel, only for a loud popping sound to briefly cut through the alarm’s shriek and the man crumbled to the ground.
Whirling around, Erika looked for the source of the gunshot only to find her friend pointing her rifle at the man, her eyes wide with terror as she stared at him. “We… We need to go!” she yelled.
As if responding to Mary’s shout, the klaxon suddenly shut off as a chilling voice echoed out over hidden speakers in the ceiling. “Ahhh,” the man’s voice sighed in a tone that sent shivers down her spine. “It seems we have a couple of rats skulking about my little base. Goons, catch them! I’m always in need of more test subjects for my little experiments…”
“We need to go,” Mary repeated shakily as she ran to the door and palmed the panel to open it, Erika close behind.
In front of her, Mary stopped to peek out the door for a moment, only to squeak and duck back in as a hail of gunfire ripped through the hallway.
“Intruders, surrender now and Professor Panic will be merciful!” a man yelled, drawing chuckles from others in the hallway.
Mary looked at Erika and shook her head, the fear in her eyes speaking volumes.
No supervillain is going to go easy on us, not with a name like “Professor Panic,” Erika thought to herself. Rushing to the side of the doorway, she pressed herself against the wall clutching the rifle as she made eye contact with Mary. “We need to go,” she mouthed at her friend.
“No giving up,” Mary mouthed back with a nod.
“Come on out now you little rats, or we’re coming in!”
Erika flicked the switch of her rifle all the way down with her thumb as she took a deep breath, making peace with what she was about to do. Tightly gripping the rifle, she stuck it out the doorway and squeezed the trigger. The rifle’s recoil nearly ripped itself out of her hands as bullet after bullet ripped out of the barrel. Holding onto the gun felt like trying to control a writhing animal, but it was over in just a few seconds as the gun finally ran out of ammo and clicked empty. Screams of pain came from the hallway.
From her position on the other side of the door, Mary held her hand out to her. “Do you have your phone?” she asked quietly as the screams of pain slowly quieted to whimpers.
Nodding, Erika clumsily pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and handed it to her friend who mimed reloading the gun with it.
Following her friend’s mimed instruction, she fumbled with the weapon, finding a simple button above the rifle’s clip that let it fall and clatter to the floor. Reaching to her stolen belt, she felt for the extra clips that looked like the one discarded on the floor and pulled one out. It was simple enough loading the boxy thing into the gun, and now reloaded, she looked back at her friend to see Mary using her phone to peek out into the hallway, her already pale skin paling even more.
“I-I think it’s clear,” she said, handing Erika’s phone back to her.
With Mary in the lead, the two of them carefully exited into what felt like a horrific crime scene. Two men wearing the same uniforms as Mary and the others lay collapsed in the hallway, blood and other things sprayed across the hallway like a nightmarish painting gone wrong. Mary’s already pale skin seemed to go even paler at the sight while Erika felt her stomach turn. Fighting down the nausea, Erika watched the two men warily, only to be jumpscared by a new notification as she saw them go still.
*Ding!* You have defeated Human Thug (Class F) x2! You have gained 1,000 EXP! Congratulations!
Fucking hell! Erika flinched back from the words, bumping into Mary as she did. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
As if the bump woke Mary from a dream, she shook herself before turning away from the two men and started walking. “This way,” she said quickly, leading the way quickly.
Erika followed along, though it didn’t take long for her to realize they weren’t headed for the door she got into the base through. “Wait, where are we going? The exit’s the other way, isn’t it?” she said as they carefully made a turn down an intersection after checking to see the coast was clear.
“We can’t leave yet, we need to get to the Security Room first,” Mary said firmly.
“Mary, what’s going on? Why don’t we just leave while we can?”
“We just can’t, I’ll explain later, let’s get to the Security Room first.”
Despite their caution and the brief gunfight outside the jail, the two made it to the Security Room quickly enough and a quick swipe of a keycard let them in. Though the two rushed in ready to shoot, the room was empty and Mary was quick to rush to the security panel and lock the door down.
As Mary did that, Erika glanced about the room. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting from a security room. Maybe a wall of monitors looking over cameras or something else, and she did see such a station as Mary rushed over to sit in the chair in front of the computer, but more surprising were the racks and tables full of weapons and gear next to a few full sized lockers. As Erika watched, Mary started furiously typing on a keyboard.
“Yes! Those idiots didn’t lock me out yet,” she crowed with more energy than she had since she woke up.
Glancing between the weapons and her friend sitting at the security station of a supervillain’s lair, Erika finally had enough. She didn’t care if it wasn’t the right time for this, she needed answers. “Okay, what the fuck is going on?” she demanded angrily. The sound of Mary tapping away at a keyboard was all the response she got. Stomping over to her friend, she grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around on the office chair and glared at her.
“What’re you—don’t interrupt me!” Mary yelled, trying to swivel back around, but Erika’s grip on the chair and her new strength ensured it didn’t budge. “When did you get so strong?”
“Mary, we just got in a gunfight in a supervillain’s lair! What’s going on?!”
Mary blew a stray lock of hair out of her eyes as she looked away guiltily. “Fine, fine, I’ll tell you, but let me work while I do.”
“Fine. Start talking.” Letting go of the chair, Erika watched as Mary immediately turned around and started typing again. Looking over her shoulder, she watched her friend type lines of incomprehensible code into the computer while another screen seemed to be loading something. On another monitor, she could see what looked like images from a bunch of security cameras as men with guns swarmed about. One image showed the trail the two men she followed went down, and her eyes went to where she knew she hid the body of the man she killed, though it wasn’t visible from the camera. Another showed the small jail she’d rescued Mary from, the man her friend shot laying where he’d fallen in a puddle of blood.
“Okay so you know that gig site invite I sent? Well, I’ve actually been doing gigs there for a few weeks.”
Her mind leapt to the site she’d seen, the embarrassing message and all the other jobs posted there. Mary was definitely hot enough, but she didn’t think her friend would be interested in that kind of work. Then again, the last thing she’d expected was for her friend to be mixed up with some supervillain. “Goon squad? Mary, are you hook—”
“Not those kind of jobs!” her friend snapped, her skin visibly reddening. “No, like computer stuff. You know how I’ve always been good with computers?”
Erika remembered all the help Mary had given her with her old laptop and phone, even offering to fix the computer for free as long as Erika paid for parts. “...yeah…?’
“Well, I’m not just good with computers. I’m a hacker. A pretty good one. And there we go!” Mary said, tapping a key extra hard. “Deleted all the security footage backups and made sure the cameras won’t be recording anything else. Anyways, Goon Squad is a site for henching. I… may have done a few henching jobs for people…”
“Henching? Are you serious? So what, you’ve just been doing bank heists and helping people knock over research labs and stuff?”
“No! Nothing like that! Just like… IT work and stuff. It’s not like a lot of supervillains can go through normal IT firms or do everything themselves. So I’ve just been doing IT work for them as a side thing…”
“And why’d they grab you? What’s going on?”
“I overheard them planning some kind of attack. I didn’t hear much, but they’re planning to cause a portal break in the city. A portal break! I tried to hack into the villain’s secure mainframe to copy their files, but I set off some kind of alarm and had to make a run for it. Anyways, I don’t think we’ll be walking out of here any time soon.”
Glancing at the monitors, she saw what her friend was talking about. The view outside showed several sleek black SUVs rolling up as men dressed like the two they fought piled out, their faces hidden under ski masks. “Oh fuck.”
