August 23, 1985

The door gave a small groan as a woman managed to separate it from its frame with a crowbar. A man looked on approvingly as another man shifted a baseball bat from one hand to another.

"Shoddy workmanship," she said, "I mean, it didn't take much at all to get rid of it. You'd think they'd know better if they were opening a business in Dayton."

The man without the baseball bat nodded.

"Let's grab the stuff and get out of here," he said, opening up the now-busted door.

Frowning the woman followed his example. The second man looked around, just to make sure, and went in after her.

"What's your hurry? The fuzz don't fuck with Dayton," she said.

Shaking his head the man headed towards the cash register. He pulled a velvet roll out of his pocket. Once rolled out, it revealed several different sized lock picks. Unlike the woman, he tended to go in for more delicate work.

"It's not the fuzz I'm worried about. I'm hearing the Academy's coming down here," he said, selecting the smallest lock pick and starting his work.

The woman laughed and the other man gave out a strangled chortle.

"Again, the Academy doesn't fuck with Dayton either," she laughed, "Not since the Jennifer Incident. Nah, they're nowhere near here."

"I heard they took in Sam and George last week," he said, "Tied 'em up and put 'em in a dumpster."

"Sounds like rival gangs," the second man grunted

"Gangs might put them in dumpsters. However, gangs wouldn't put them in a dumpster, then put the dumpster out in the street with graffiti saying; 'Hey police! Bad guys in here!' Not to mention the security tapes they included."

"Creative rival gangs," the man suggested, "The idea of the Academy coming here is even preposterous then Lupo coming down here with his bloodhounds."

"Besides, they've been saying the police and the Academy have been on their way here for years," the woman added, "It's practically become an urban legend. So any superheroes here is probably just an urban legend too."

"Here that?" a voice said, "We're urban legends now. Score!"

The three turned around to see two girls standing in the doorway.

"Now we can do this the easy way," Claire said cheerfully, "or the hard way."

"Oooooooooo do pick the hard way!" said Vi gleefully.

The woman quickly picked up the cash register and heaved it at them. Both of them sidestepped it easily.

"Guess that's the hard way," Claire said, giving a mock sigh.

Placing her arms in front of her she shot electric sparks at the woman. She gave a small scream, and the man with the baseball bat leaped forward to help. Before he reached Claire Vi gave him a low kick which sent him sprawling.

"Sloppy!" she said, tsking her tongue.

The man got back up and took a blind, and rather clumsy, swing at her. She dodged it deftly before grabbing a counter with her arms. Using it as support to heave herself up she quickly kicked him several times in the chest. He fell to the ground, banging his head hard. Vi grinned.

Seeing the man who'd been picking the lock try to beat a hasty escape, Claire leapt over the still form of the woman. She wouldn't even have to use her powers this time. Carefully keeping her thumb outside of her fist she swung her arm in a solid right hook. She felt an odd satisfaction as he went down like a log.

"Easy enough," she said as she dragged him over to the other three.

"Fifth mission tonight," Vi said, stretching, "After this one, 'ya wanna call it a night? We've got a test tomorrow."

Claire shrugged.

"Why not? Did you bring the rope?"

"Yeah, but we're running out," replied Vi as she tossed some to Claire, "I mean, you don't think about this in the comics. Heroes tie up bad guys, that's it. You don't stop to think; Gee, what happens if they run out of rope? Or I wonder if that's expensive?"

"Comics are so misleading," Claire said as she looped it around the first man's wrists, "I suppose we could use less rope, but then they might get away."

Just as she finished tying the man's hands there was a groan from the other one. She gave a look at Vi who hurried over to make sure that his bonds were secure. They were, so she figured they didn't have anything to worry about when he woke up. She figured he'd just yell insults at them, or keep quiet, perhaps because they knew their Miranda rights, as usual. As it turned out though, this one was a whole different spectrum of stupid.

"Is this how you get your kicks?" he snarled, "Tying people up? 'Cause if you've got some sort of kinky fetish to satisfy I'm sure there're lots of guys out there who'd be only too happy to-"

Whatever he was planning on suggesting was cut short as Vi punched him in the teeth. To her surprise, Claire saw several of them fall out.

"Themph Academphy ithn't thupposed to uthe brutalitymph!" he said, slurring his words because of the blood pouring into his mouth.

"Well, we're not with the Academy you sick bastard," Vi said sweetly, "So shut the fuck up before I decide you have some other teeth that need to be removed."

Knocking him unconscious Vi looked up at Claire.

"That was, uh, some punch," she said, "I…didn't think people could lose that many teeth in one-"

"I've been working out," she said.

"Yeah…but…" Claire gave up.

Getting to her feet Vi looked down at her outfit.

"Is there something about this that screams slut?" she asked, "I mean, everything's covered except my shoulders, and you can hardly get slut from that. It's not even skin-tight or anything. It's just normal."

"You know guys," said Claire, rolling her eyes, "Perverts, the lot of 'em. Now, let's get these weirdos with the rest of the garbage."

Dragging them out into the street they shoved them into a waiting dumpster. It had kind of become their trademark in the last month or so. As they wheeled it out into the street Claire said thoughtfully;

"That's the fifteenth time someone thought we were with the Umbrella Academy."

Vi gave a shrug.

"So?"

"We're attracting attention," Claire said, "That's the so."

"I'm not sure I like the way that sounds," answered Vi as they wheeled the dumpster out into the street, "With lots of eyes on us they're bound to figure things out that we might not want them to know."

Now it was Claire's turn to shrug. She wiped her hands out, and then paused.

"What do you think of the Academy?" she inquired, "I mean, we might run into them."

"Well…they're heroes," Vi said, "But…I don't think much of getting too involved in them. My mom thinks they're dangerous…and I kinda agree with her. I mean, they say that when the police examined Vanya Hargreeves' car after the accident, the brake line had been cut."

"You and your conspiracy theories," said Claire, rolling her eyes.

"Hey! It might be true," Vi said indignantly, "And do you know what? I don't think I'd mind joining the Academy. That could be cool…but…"

"Hold your horses!" laughed Claire, "We'll cross that very unlikely bridge if we come to it."