Okay, the security here isn't exactly top of the line. I'd expected better. A gloved hand scrolled through the phone, bringing up the app she'd designed. She held it against the electronic lock and after a few seconds the screen span with red blocks and a muted beep sounded. The blocks switched to green and the lock popped open. Now, where did they put it? She stalked along the edge of the room, looking at each cabinet in turn. Right, here it is. She found what she was looking for in the second to last cabinet on the right, near the other exit to the room, something she couldn't be annoyed about. She pulled out the last bit of tech she needed and put it in her black bag that was strapped to her back.
The door she came in through burst open with red petals and a figure wearing a red eye mask and costume decorated with petals skidded into the room, a red cloak fluttering behind her.
Damn. There must have been a hidden alarm she hadn't noticed, It's been a while since I last fought someone properly, can I take her on my own?
"Stop right there!" The figure pulled themselves up to their full height, not that it was very tall, and put their hands on their hips. "What do you think you're doing here?"
"I'm testing the security." She shrugged and turned to face the figure, confident her own mask and costume hid her identity. "Schnee Corp hired me to see if their security could withstand a professional break in. I've gotta say, not very impressed so far."
"Wait they did? Oh...Err. Sorry then, I probably ruined the test, didn't I?" The red figure immediately changed demeanour, going from confident hero, whether that confidence was real or faked, most likely the latter, to a more defeated figure straight away.
"Yes, you did. But don't worry, I'll make sure to keep your name out of the report." She smiled and turned to head towards the other door.
"Although, if that was true, why are you taking one of their latest bits of technology with you? And surely they'd hire one of the more reliable heroes to do it, rather than the notorious villain, Shadow." The red cloaked figure's voice was back to the same confidence they'd had before.
Busted.
"Well Red Rose you do seem to know a little bit about what you're saying. But are you sure you want to take me on? As you say, I am notorious." Shadow smirked as she turned back to face Red Rose, a small knife now in the palm of her free hand.
"I can handle you. Can you even keep up with me?"
Now it was headed towards a fight Red Rose seems cocky and overconfident, this will be a lot easier than I first thought.
Before either of them could make the first move however, there was a loud sizzling and the window on the far side of the room fell in, shattering into a few thousand pieces.
"Whoops!" The green and cream clad woman shot through the window and came to a halt, hovering just above the ground a few feet away from Shadow and Red Rose. Like the previous two, she also had a small mask on that covered their eyes and left the rest of her face free.
She laughed and looked back to the window, "I'll have to clean that up afterwards. Oh, Red Rose, why are you here?"
"One of the alarms that had been set up was tripped, so I shot up here to see what had happened in case it was someone up to no good. How about you Synth?
"I thought I'd come by and stop Shadow from stealing the last parts they need for their machine."
Ah. So, she knows about that too? Huh. She's done some a lot of investigation. "No, like I said to Red Rose here, I'm just doing a job for Schnee Corp testing their security. I need to steal something to prove that I got in."
"Really? What machine is that?" Shadow noticed that Red Rose was asking Synth, rather than herself about it.
"Well, it's supposed to be a combination of both a satellite uplink that can manipulate various satellites by hacking into the command modules from a distance and then controlling them, as well as something that can hack into various stock market exchanges around the world and manipulate them to cause a global crash, thereby making billions on various stock bets." Synth stared at Red Rose who had directed the response at her and was smiling. Red Rose meanwhile had just stared at Synth the whole time, her mouth slowly creeping open as
"W-wow. You really know all about it don't you? I'm not as technologically savvy as you are though, I just prefer to work as fast as I can." She laughed and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Don't be silly you're incredible! I'll never be anywhere as fast as you are, just because I'm gifted in technology doesn't mean that you're any less of a hero! Your speed is something to be very happy about, you can save ten people before I can save one." Synth smiled and gestured with her hands to Red Rose, who returned the smile, a faint blush creeping into her cheeks.
"Are you two...flirting?" Shadow couldn't keep the incredulity out of her voice, this was a new one for her, she'd never had two heroes flirt with each other in front of her, especially when she was trying to steal something.
"What? Flirting? Us? Noooo...not flirting at all! Hiccup!" Synth slightly ruined the denial by hiccupping, and even Red Rose smirked and chuckled.
Just as Shadow was about to reply, because even though they'd only been in the room for less than a minute it was obvious the two had a thing for each other, a third figure, this time clad in ice blue from her toes flowing up to white at the top of her head, and a mask that covered the upper half of her face and ended in spikes that resembled a crown skated in, ice covering the floor in front of her.
"How did you two get here before me?!" The new voice, also female from the high pitch, and not one that was in a good mood from the tone, came out quite sharp.
"Hey, Snowflake! I was wondering if you'd show up, how come you're late?" Red Rose grinned at the newcomer who, even through her mask, gave Red Rose a death glare.
"How many times do I have to tell you; the name is Blizzard." Blizzard's voice was as cold as her name. "And I can't help it if you're faster than a rabbit on a sugar rush, some of us get here as fast as we can."
"Synth got here before you." The teasing tone was so evident in Red Rose's voice that Synth tried, and failed, to hold back a giggle.
"That's because she can fly and is so clued up on various villainous plots she probably started to come here before you even knew there was an issue."
Spotting Synth start to blush as well, Shadow started to slowly edge backwards, spotting an opportunity as all three of the heroes had their focus on each other.
"Hello Blizzard! You look wonderful this evening; did you update your outfit? I thought it was whiter?" Synth gave Blizzard a quick look up and down, taking in the skin-tight bodysuit, plates of body armour mixed in to cover important areas but allowing maximum movement.
Blizzard flicked her ponytail, as white as her mask, behind her. "Thank you for noticing Synth, I upgraded the gloves and boots to be more conducive to my talents." Blizzard's eyes copied Synth's roam, taking in the rocket boots and jet pack, as well as the wrist cannons that acted as lasers, all a mix of green and cream. "You look like you've upgraded your suit as well, the wrists look new."
"Oh yeah, they do look new!" Red Rose zipped over to stand next to Synth, leaning down to look at the wrists. "What did you do with them?"
Shadow rolled her eyes to the ceiling as the three started to discuss various upgrades to each other's outfits, with various compliments from each of them. I don't have the time, or patience, to listen to them flirt. Time to just…
A flash of green light and a burning smell filled Shadow's nostrils as the green laser shot in front of her, a few inches from her face and she froze. Slowly turning her head, keeping one hand outstretched to the door handle, she looked back at the three heroes looking at he, Synth's arm raised, and with Red Rose and Blizzard with their arms folded.
"Where are you going Shadow?"
"You three seemed to be having a lovely conversation, so I figured I'd finish my job and head off to see the head of Schnee Corp, let her know where her company's security is lacking." Shadow feigned nonchalance, keeping an eye on the heroes, flicking between each one.
"That's fine, just be sure to leave the technology you stole on the counter before you leave." Blizzard's eyes in the mask narrowed as Synth spoke.
"Dust really? Now the Yellow Dragon as well? Come on!" Shadow almost shouted and threw a hand up in annoyance towards the three heroes, all of whom spun to look behind them.
"The Yellow Dragon?" Shadow heard from Red Rose as she sprinted through the doorway, letting it swing behind her.
"Oh you pair of dolts! She's getting away!" Blizzard's voice cut through the silence before a path of ice shot through the doorway and created a curve in front of Shadow, Blizzard skating to a halt in front of her, holding a sword made of ice in her left hand, the right outstretched for balance.
Blizzard swung the sword at Shadow's midriff, only for the villain's body to slip into smoke, reappearing behind Blizzard, lashing out with a kick to the back of her knees. Shadow turned and used Blizzard's body to kick off from as it fell forwards, the balance gone.
"Nope! Not getting away!" Red Rose called out as the red blue came into the corridor. It was immediately turned into almost a whirlwind as Red Rose's feet hit the ice and lost all traction almost instantly. "Whaaaaa!" She fell onto her front and spun round like a top, knocking into the back of Shadow's legs who, whilst she had expected a few different attacks from Red Rose and had thought of ways to counter them, hadn't expected that. Landing heavily on her back, knocking the wind out of her, she started to get to her feet, but Synth flew over and stood above her, an arm and wrist laser pointed at her. Blizzard had also got back up and Shadow felt ice encase her limbs, freezing her to the floor.
"Yes! We did it!" Red Rose jumped to her feet and danced a very strange and altogether uncoordinated dance that drew a chuckle from Synth and an eye roll from Blizzard.
"Yes, you caught the villain. But you still failed the test." A tall, muscular blonde woman wearing a yellow and brown outfit, jacket loose and undone at the front, with her hands covered in yellow gloves, walked in from the other end of the corridor. "If that was real life people could have died."
"Please, if there were actually people's lives at stake, we'd have done it a lot quicker and lot more reliably, this was a robbery, not a hostage situation." Blizzard pulled her mask off and put it under one arm, giving the blonde a glare. "We took down Blake, on our first try. How long did it take you to do that Yang? Oh, that's right, years." She finished it off with a smirk.
Yang just laughed, "I'll admit, that bit I did not expect at all. So fine, kudos to you three for taking down the notorious Shadow. Even if it was a bit of a fluke from Rubes." Yang reached over and pulled Red Rose into a one-armed hug, rubbing her knuckles against Red Rose's scalp and messing with her hair.
"Yaaaaaang cut it out!" Red Rose shoved off Yang and sprinted back to behind Blizzard, sticking her tongue out.
"That was absolutely a planned manoeuvre and was not total luck at all!" Synth spoke and grinned, whilst the other four looked at her, all waiting for it. A moment later she hiccupped and covered her mouth with her hand, looking a little bashful.
"There it is." Yang leant down and offered a hand to Shadow, now free from Blizzard's ice. "You alright?"
Shadow just chuckled, "My hero." She kissed Yang on the cheek before looking at the others, "Maybe if you spent less time flirting and more time actually doing your jobs, you could have actually stopped me from getting away."
"But we did stop you?" Red Rose was as confused as the other three until Shadow smirked and darted away into the darkness, leaving Yang chuckling and the three heroes staring into the dark. "Wait that's unfair Blake!"
"Let her go Ruby, as far as I'm concerned, we won, and we completed the test. If I hadn't freed her she'd have been stuck until the ice melted. Plenty of time for police to show up. Now, shall we go celebrate?" Blizzard held her hands out and Red Rose took one, with Synth taking the other, and bending down slightly to place a kiss on Blizzard's cheek, Red Rose copying Synth on the other side. "Blake was right though; I do need to speak to my engineers if she got through that many of the alarms without them tripping…
Red Rose and Synth started giggling as they walked off with Blizzard, "Stop working Weiss, I thought you said it was time to celebrate?"
"Yes! Ruby is right Weiss; it is celebration time! I am looking forward to this celebration with both of you!" Synth smiled and skipped along to keep time with Red Rose, Blizzard being forced to almost jog to keep up, but still smiling and gripping tightly to the hands clasped in hers.