Chapter Twenty

Three Minutes

"Are you outside the bank?" Hugo phones in over Erik's radio as he and Titania pull up in a newly rented car.

"Just pulled up. We're heading in now." Erik says as he adjusts his suit jacket to hide the ballistic vest beneath. After turning to nod at Titania, the two confidently stride across the street and into the bank.

The layout was exactly how the blueprints had shown; a large open lobby with a long row of tellers and a floor dotted with chairs and tables. Behind the tellers against the back wall was a large vault door. The sight of it made Titania's breath catch in her throat. Erik glanced at her and elbowed her in the ribs, gesturing towards John Kraglin at his post, standing next to the bank vault with his hands at his side, twitching slightly.

"Hi! Can I help you two?" A teller asks from across the lobby. Erik glances at them then scans the immediate surroundings. There were six people in the building; Erik himself, Titania, Kraglin, two tellers, and one other security guard. "Sir?"

Erik says nothing as he opens a portal behind the first teller and yanks him through. Before the teller can fully process what is going on, Titania's skin becomes a solid sheet of tungsten and she punches the teller in the face, knocking him out instantly. The second teller quickly hits the silent alarm but is quickly silenced when he falls through one of Erik's portals and lands at his feet. Titania gives him the same treatment as the first teller, punching him in the nose and knocking him unconscious.

"Kraglin!" The other security guard yells as he draws a taser gun and fires it at Titania. The barbs simply bounce off and she scoffs. The man gives Kraglin a terrified glance as Erik sends him through a portal. Erik turns to the vault and away from Titania, but she no doubt takes care of him in the same way.

"You've got two minutes and forty-five seconds." Hugo says calmly over the radio.

Erik and Titania stride toward the vault, which slowly opens as Kraglin strains himself opening it. The two slip into the vault and Titania begins to laugh maniacally. It was exactly how Hugo had described it to them so many times before; one wall of safety deposit boxes flanked by tables stacked with cash behind wrought iron bars.

"There's enough here for all of us to enjoy." Titania mumbles as Erik opens a portal behind the bars now that he can see where he's going. Erik glances nervously at Kraglin at the door.

"Depends on how you look at it." Erik says quietly as he begins to shovel money into a duffel bag.

"Two minutes, you're making good time." Hugo updates Erik. The two continue to fill up their duffel bags until no more cash will fit and walk back through Erik's portal and toward the exit.

"Minute thirty."

As Erik passes Kraglin, he holds out his hands, expecting his cut of the take.

"I'll just go back into hiding when the police show up. No harm, no foul, right?" Kraglin says with a crooked smile. Erik stops dead in his tracks and looks him in the eyes coldly. Kraglin's smile fades immediately. "I see."

"I should have told you about the change of plans." Erik says in a low voice.

"Wait, what change-" Titania begins to ask as Erik lunges at Kraglin, gripping his face with his right hand and pushing him into the tellers' desks with his left. Kraglin tried his best to deflect the attack, but his age had caught up with him and he was unable to postpone the inevitable as Erik began to siphon off his blood.

Erik begins to chuckle as Kraglin beats at his chest trying desperately to push him away but failing to do anything but break his fingers on the machinery beneath. Kraglin screams in pain in response.

"HELP!" The old man yells at the top of his lungs.

Erik leans in close.

"No one is coming to save you." He whispers. "Nobody."

Memories begin to flood Erik's mind and he throws his head back in response to the overflow and subsequent headache.

"Erik, we're running out of time!" Titania yells as she tries to pull Erik away.

"Forty-five seconds, what are you doing!?" Hugo screams in his ear.

Erik shoves Titania away with his free hand as he drowns them out.

Erik saw everything John Kraglin had ever done in a split second. He had lived a long, eventful life — one full of love, murders, and crime. Kraglin had been a hitman for some of the most infamous villains of his time, killing high-profile heroes, witnesses, even other villains.

"It's too late, they're here!" Hugo yells as he disconnects the line. Erik's eyes snap open as he sees one last memory — a little girl running up to Kraglin with a teddy bear in her arms. Erik couldn't hear her, but he could clearly read her lips.

Pop-pop, she had said.

Erik looks down at Kraglin, now a hollow corpse, then back at Titania, who was readying herself to fight some heroes who had just landed outside the building. Erik closes his eyes and concentrates, summoning an invisible bubble around himself and Titania. The heroes walk in and investigate the damage, checking on the incapacitated employees but never laying eyes on Erik and Titania.

Erik looks at her and she smiles incredulously.

Good. The Allfather's voice echoed and reverberated inside Erik's head.

Erik and Titania walk out of the bank entirely unnoticed as police cars and news vans flood the streets, something that even Erik had to crack a smile at.

Hugo reconnects the line and Erik hears him laughing like a mad man.

"I knew I should have trusted you!" Hugo shouts.

"You got the sellers lined up?" Erik asks.

"All we need is the cash and we get everything we could possibly need for this job, don't you worry about that." Hugo confirms. "And that new quirk should come in handy too. Kraglin was kind of a rat anyways."

"Good." Erik deadpans. "I want this ready by April."

"Heh, you underestimate me." Hugo scoffs. "I could have this ready next week."

"I said April." Erik growls. Hugo goes silent. "I'm not in any shape to do the job, I need more quirks and I need them fast."

"Yes, sir." Hugo says quietly.

Erik smirks as he continues to walk down the sidewalk, completely undetected, as if he had done nothing at all.

"Hey, boss?" Titania asks timidly, something that Erik had rarely seen from her. Erik stays silent. "What about the kid? He's not taking the bait."

Erik takes a deep breath.

"If he's going to keep playing hero, I'll have to kill him myself."

Bam, new chapter. If you're getting tired of chapters from Voss' perspective, don't worry, Emmet chapters are going to return in the next one. I really enjoyed writing these chapters from another perspective, hard as they may have been. It really forced me to think outside the box and it led to me writing one of my favorite chapters in The Case of Erik Voss. Leave a review and a favorite if you wanna tell me what you thought about these last few chapters!