Connections 3

"That was easy," Emma said, sounding surprised.

"A lot easier than I was expecting," Sophia agreed.

"Easy on you, hard on me," Jimmy said dryly.

"Hard?" Emma jumped up face red, as she realized what he meant, she'd been so focused on what he'd been saying she'd completely blanked on the fact he'd been naked.

Sophia forced herself to get up slowly, ignoring the blush she was sporting.

"Maybe I should get dressed," Jimmy said. They'd been studying math for over an hour and he was pretty sure his clothes were dry by now.

"If you must," Sophia said, trying to sound casual and making Emma giggle.

Jimmy couldn't keep from snickering himself as he got dressed. "So, what's the plan?" he asked.

Sophia's grin was full of teeth. "Located an Empire stash house, not a big one, but one they keep at least two people guarding at all times. They try to keep things quiet, so if you can make some noise and draw them out, break some windows and duck into an alley, I can ghost in, rob the place and ghost out without them even knowing I was there."

"They probably have two shifts, though three would be smarter," Jimmy said. "If you know a good spot we can stake it out for a day and see. Maybe cause a fuss and see if they call in other people or handle it themselves, so there aren't any surprises."

"Good idea for a larger target, but this one is a simple in and out," Sophia argued, "and I'm the one taking all the risks."

"Your risk, your call," Jimmy agreed, making her smile.

"Doubt they're running four shifts, but even it they are two AM is the best time," Sophia explained, "cause I know they aren't running six."

"Yeah, I may be over preparing," Jimmy said. "Fine, I need a couple of good sized rocks, a brick, a paper bag and a quick visit to the park."

The two girls looked at him, confusion on their faces, but he just grinned.

1:55am

Shadow Stalker and Emma laid flat on the tar and gravel roof of the three storey apartment building overlooking the duplex they were watching.

"Get ready, Jimmy's in position," Emma said before repeating her instructions, to make sure they were both on the same page and to settle her nerves, "I'll text when they take the bait, one text if they stay, two for if only one chases him, and three if he gets both. Any texts past that is a warning they're returning."

Shadow Stalker tapped her left breast to make sure the phone was in position. "Fuck yeah," she said excitedly before throwing herself off the building, her form turning into a shadow and sailing invisibly through the night sky.

Emma watched as Jimmy checked his watch, barely visible in the alley between two apartment complexes. As he stood up, she got out her phone and hit record, they were both going to want to see this later and it was good intel, she told herself with a grin.

Jimmy walked up to the front door of their target, pulled out a lighter, lit the paper bag he was holding on fire and set it on the welcome mat before pushing the doorbell and rushing back down the driveway, smashing a brick into the passenger side window of the car as he passed it, shattering the window, but not setting off an alarm.

The phone shook with laughter as Emma kept it pointed at their target. Two skinny white men with shaved heads rushed out the front door.

"What the fuck?!" the first skinhead shouted as he noticed the fire at their feet and they both instantly started stomping on it, trying to put it out and spreading the contents everywhere.

"What is that smell?" the second asked as they got the fire out and noticed the mess.

"It's shit!" the first one exclaimed disgusted and started looking around for who could have done it, quickly spotting the shattered side window on the car and the boy in the gray hoodie who cheerfully waved and started running.

The two immediately gave chase, rapidly gaining on him, but he had enough of a lead to duck into an alley and kick over a few cans to slow them down.

Emma stopped recording and sent a smile emoji to Shadow Stalker, waiting a moment before sending a second and then a third another second later as she watched for the Empire goons to return.

0o0o0o0o

Jimmy laughed loudly, the sound echoing in the alley as he heard the two cuss and kick things out of the way as they chased after him.

He hung back a little to let them get closer as he turned and lead them down another alley, banging the lid of a dumpster before squeezing through a small gap in the tall wooden fence that lead to the backyard of an abandoned house.

He forced himself to take slow deep breaths, sweat beading on his face under the hockey mask he was wearing beneath the hood, making his nose itch as he listened for sounds of pursuit.

"He's not in the fucking dumpster and I don't see him anywhere!" one of the thugs yelled.

Jimmy kept still in the shadow of the house, its faded grey paint a half decent match for the sweats he was wearing that should allow him to escape detection as long as no one shined a light on him.

"There's a gap in the fence here," one of the two thugs called to the other, trying and failing to squeeze through.

Jimmy kept still… until the back porch light came on.

"What's going on here?" a cranky old man asked as he opened the back door of the poorly maintained, but apparently not abandoned, house.

"There he is!" the thug shouted, easily spotting Jimmy. He quickly yanked out a gun and brought it up to fire.

Jimmy wished fervently he was anywhere else but where he was as the muzzle raised. Suddenly he felt as if he was being squeezed into a narrow tunnel, he heard a gunshot, and everything was dark.

Jimmy frantically patted himself down, but he didn't feel any pain and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized he was standing in the wheelroom of the tug.

0o0o0o0o0o

Emma heard the sound of a gunshot a block or so away and hoped that wasn't one of the Empire goons. She reminded herself that Jimmy had told her not to worry, he had prepared an escape route in advance and would meet them back at the tug, besides gunfire wasn't exactly rare in Brockton Bay.

The sound of gunfire in the opposite direction was actually comforting as she relaxed, sure that he'd gotten away as planned. Several minutes went by before the two returned, arguing loudly about something and stopping to pick up loose sheets of newspapers from the floor of the alley to wipe off their boots while she sent a frown emoji to Shadow Stalker, realized her job was done and waited for her friend to return.

"Psst," Shadow Stalker hissed just a few seconds later, making Emma jump, "I'm here, let's beat feet."

Emma crawled back from the edge before getting up and looking at her. Shadow Stalker had a duffel bag on her back and was holding out a hand for Emma to grab so she could ghost them back to the ground. "No problems?" Emma whispered.

"Nah," Stalker said with a grin, "snuck up on the guard they'd left behind, knocked him the fuck out, and cleaned them out."

Emma was surprised to hear there had been a third person in there, but was unsurprised that Stalker had been skilled enough to handle things. She grinned as the world took on a sharper contrast and Stalker pulled her along into her shadow world.

0o0o0o0o0o

Jimmy piled the grey sweats and hockey mask on the counter and went down to the engine room to rinse off the sweat, making sure to bring along his sliced up shirt and boxers. The last thing he needed was to have the girls walk in on him naked again.

He easily found his way through the dark halls by touch, used to the dim and sometimes completely absent light. He placed his things on the bench and quickly entered the water. The water felt like it was freezing cold as he ducked under it before quickly resurfacing, shivering, and wiping himself down to get all the water off. He quickly got dressed and climbed up the stairs back to the wheel room.

"I need some lights in here," Jimmy said before yawning. He sat down in his favorite seat and closed his eyes for a moment.

"He's wearing clothes," Sophia said, startling him awake.

Jimmy blinked in the light from Emma's phone. "We should probably take this downstairs," he said while stretching, "I don't want the light attracting attention to this place."

"What is downstairs?" Emma asked curiously.

"Below decks," Sophia corrected the two.

"That too," Jimmy agreed, "but since this tug has been beached and the engine room is actually missing, it's more a building than not."

He led them down the stairs and into a cabin. It wasn't a large room, about half the size of the wheel room and a third of that was the bed. There was a porthole on the left-hand side of the room, covered by cardboard that had been cut to fit.

Sophia tossed her duffel bag on the bed. "Surprised you don't sleep here," she said, as she unzipped it.

"There's only one way out and do you see the patch of tape on the wall?" Jimmy asked as he flipped a switch on a battery-operated light that lit up the room.

"Yeah?" Emma replied, turning off her phone.

"A cape was testing his powers," Jimmy said, "I was sitting at the desk at the time."

"Ouch," Emma said with a wince, realizing how close he'd come to getting hit.

"And here is our take for the night," Sophia said proudly as she dumped out the bag, revealing bundles of cash and a number of leather billfolds.

"Billfolds?" Jimmy said curiously before picking one up and examining the contents. "Oh!"

"Oh?" Emma repeated as she picked one up and looked inside. "IDs without pictures and gift cards?"

"So, they can slot in their own pictures and the gift cards can be used to buy things to fill out their cover without leaving a paper trail," Jimmy explained. "Looks like the stash house was in case they had to have somebody do some traveling, for one reason or another, without being connected to the Empire."

"What do we do with them?" Emma asked.

"Doubt we know anyone safe to fence them to, so drop them off with the police," Jimmy suggested. "It'd keep them from using those IDs in the future, which probably cost them a mint to set up."

"Half the cash is foreign," Sophia said, annoyed.

"Yeah, you can exchange it at the bank, but I'd hold off on that for a while, as any Empire sympathizers at the bank would tip them off as to who was exchanging European currency in suspicious amounts," he said as he examined a bundle.

"Too much to spend all at once anyway," Sophia said, pleased that it was still worth something.

"This is a lot of money," Emma said in wonder.

"Yeah," Jimmy agreed, "but we can't exactly flash it around or go buying out the shops, because that sends up all sorts of red flags to the cops, the capes, and the IRS."

"But we could buy some new gear," Sophia said with a grin, "some decent weapons and costumes to start."

"Yeah, the grey sweats let you blend in, but heroes need to stand out. If you aren't instantly identifiable on sight you could draw friendly fire."

"It also helps the villains realize how fucked they are," Sophia added with a grin.

"Where do capes buy their gear?" Emma asked.

"No clue," Sophia admitted. "Any ideas?" she asked Jimmy.

"Easiest way is to ask one of the independent heroes or rogues," he said, "they have to buy their own, so they would know."

"There are a lot of verified capes on PHO," Emma said, "I could make a throw away account and use one of the school computer to ask around."

"Works for me," Sophia said with a nod. "How do we split this up?" she gestured to their take.

"Half to you, since you were at the most risk," Jimmy suggested, "a quarter to the spotter and distraction."

"You were in a bit more danger than I was," Sophia pointed out, "all I had to do was knock out one idiot, you had to deal with two who were chasing you."

"Turned out to be easy," Jimmy said, deciding that if they were going to be friends, he'd have to trust them. "Rile them up, lure them off, teleport back here."

"Teleport?" Sophia said with a slowly growing grin. "Hah, knew you were a cape!"

"I knew I was a cape too," Jimmy agreed, "I just thought all I could do was turn people's hair blue when I was pissed off."

"You have more than one power?" Emma asked.

"When I'm angry I turn people's hair blue and when I'm about to wet myself staring down the barrel of a gun I can teleport," Jimmy said.

"Better than the other way around," Sophia offered, making him laugh.

"I wonder what other emotions do," Emma said thoughtfully.

"Fight or flight are the two strongest," Sophia said, "but since it's powers it might be something else altogether. Could be you can do either whenever you get emotional or you develop them based on what you need at the moment. Powers are weird. I had to look up a lot of things after I triggered, to get a handle on it."

"Triggered?" Jimmy asked.

"All capes get powers after having the worst day of their life, unless one of their parents was a cape, then they can trigger from just having a really bad day," Sophia said visibly uncomfortable with the topic.

"Huh," Jimmy said. "Lost my parents in a car accident, the same one that gave me this scar, so I can't ask them." He tapped his forehead.

"You could have triggered then," Emma pointed out.

"Nah, I was pretty numb," Jimmy replied, "and my parents seemed more resigned than anything, possibly even amused. They told me to run and hide as there was a battle between a couple of gangs going on around us."

"Sounds like capes," Sophia offered, "so I'm guessing you're second gen, probably from the UK since you still got a bit of an accent."

"You're probably right," Jimmy said with a nod.

"So, your powers could be anything," Emma said. "How do you test something like that?"

"Throw shit at the wall and see what sticks," Sophia said, trying to move things onto a lighter topic. "We can test that out once we get a place."

"We?" Jimmy asked.

"Need a place to crash now and then," Sophia explained. "Mom knows what I'm doing, but doesn't want my little sister to get caught up in it, so I need to keep some stuff someplace else and be able to sleep during the day, so I'm not tired at work, mostly on the weekends."

"Sounds good," Jimmy agreed. "Got some place in mind?"

"Depends," Sophia said, "do you like dogs?"

Typing by: fyrewolf5