Sorry about the gap between updates, exam time in Uni. Lots of fun

Chapter Three: Laying Low

The explosion rocked the building to its very foundations. Agent Smythe snarled as he realised that the tower was coming down while he was stuck on the roof and that Captain Blue Fist was escaping with his one true love, Betty Carver.

"Save me!" she screamed as the blue skinned villain cackled manically.

Ding! Dong!

"Always when I'm reading," Fred grumbled, tossing his comic book on the couch as he made his way to the mansion's entrance. Naturally, Heathcliff had already greeted the visitor and ushered them inside. "Hiro!" he said excitedly, "What brings you here, bro?"

"I thought that you might want this," Hiro said, tossing the older man a strange looking gun, minus the power pack of course. He was smart enough to not walk around with a loaded gun, kinetic or otherwise. "I know that you weren't technically there but I figured that you still might want a trophy." Ever since they had started their superhero careers, Fred had always liked to claim a memento for every successful mission.

"Thanks," the surfer dude said while excitedly flipping the gun around and looking at it. "Still majorly bummed that I missed out on the heist. Looked totally wicked. How did it go?"

"It was fine," Hiro said, leaning against the wall, "The lady in charge was a bit of a psycho."

"Was she hot?"

"Dude! She shot at me with a lightning gun."

"But was she hot?" Hiro shrugged helplessly.

"I don't know," he said, "I suppose she had a sort of rugged confidence about her that some might find attractive but not really my thing especially when you consider that she shot at me with a lightning gun! I feel like you are ignoring that last part."

"Relax, bro," Fred said soothingly, "Just asking. Anyway, we all know that your thing is more in the line of tiny Korean girls with a penchant for stunt biking and bubble gum." Hiro grinned.

"When did you learn penchant?" Hiro asked, sounding impressed, completely missing the rest of the sentence for the moment, caring more about Fred's expanded vocabulary.

"Hey," Fred said defensively, "I read."

"Okay, okay," Hiro said in a mollifying (yet somehow playfully sarcastic) tone of voice, "I'm sorry, sometimes I forget just how well read you are."

"So I know that you didn't come by to give me this seriously sweet gift, BT-Dubs, thanks man," he said happily while holding up the trophy, "So what brings you down here?"

"Just felt like getting out of the apartment for a bit," Hiro replied easily, "Honey-Lemon's really laying on the guilt trip for not being able to call."

"She's just worried," Fred said, leaping onto the nearest sofa and flopping his feet onto the clearly priceless coffee table, much to Heathcliff's eternal consternation.

"I know," Hiro relented, "But… You know."

"Yeah, I hear you, mate," the older man said sympathetically.

"Anyway," said Hiro, "The other reason I came by is that I'm thinking of making some modifications to my suit and you know how much I value you're… erenthusiastic creativeinput."

"Happy to assist," said Fred happily.

~o~O~o~

There was something extremely off putting about the man in the navy blue suit, Katherine Skylark had decided. He had just arranged a prison breakout that had resulted in the deaths of three police officers and the only emotion that he seemed to be displaying was boredom as they huddled in the back of the speeding van. She looked at him curiously and he boldly stared back at her, silently daring her to break the silence first.

Suddenly the van came to a stop.

"Out," was all that he said and she followed him out of the van and into an alleyway where he and the van's driver led her to a nondescript looking yellow car. "In," he said curtly as he climbed into the backseat with her quickly following. As soon as the driver got them back out onto the main roads she realised that she had had enough with the man's cryptic attitude.

"Alright," she snapped, "That's it! I want answers. Who the hell are you and where are we going?" Both the man in the suit and the driver started laughing. "What?" she demanded in an icy tone of voice.

"Oh it's nothing," said the man, still shaking with laughter as he passed the driver a twenty dollar bill, "It's just… Given that you were the kind of person who designed a high tech weapon like your zappy ray gun of death thing, I bet that you would wait until the end of the drive to start asking questions. He," the man nodded at the driver, "disagreed and bet me a twenty. He won." He cocked his head curiously. "Actually, Howard, have I ever won one of our bets?"

"There was that time congress voted to ban teaching Intelligent Design in schools," said Howard the driver, "Definitely didn't see that one coming." The man chuckled fondly at the memory.

"Yeah," he said, grinning, "I never expected to win that one, it was more naïve optimism than anything though of course I am now naturally happy to have our class rooms once again become a safe haven for knowledge rather than superstition." He turned back to Katherine. "Don't worry, sweetheart," he said, revelling in her obvious displeasure at being called sweetheart, "All will be revealed when we reach our destination."

~o~O~o~

Hiro looked up from his work as Wasabi entered Fred's basement/the team's workshop. "Hey," he said tiredly, "I didn't know that you were coming by."

"Fred called and said that you were working on some suit modifications," said Wasabi, "At least he did before he passed out on the chair over there." He nodded in the direction of the comatose, snoring Fred. "What are you working on?" he asked, looking at the blueprints the younger man had laid out. "Leg modifications?" he mused, "Interesting. What's this, jet boots? What are you thinking, you want to fly around like Baymax?"

"Not exactly," Hiro replied, "Because I'm quite a bit smaller than our marshmallow friend I don't think that there would be enough room in the armour to fit in all of the components that I'd need for actual flight." Wasabi nodded when he realised where Hiro was going with his line of thought.

"So you're thinking of some sort of jump ability? Like what Fred has?"

"Not exactly," Hiro countered, "I'm thinking something jet based. It would make for a faster speed. I'm just having some trouble fitting it all in without slowing me down when running."

"Let me take a look at it," Wasabi said, sitting down next to him and grabbing a pencil. "So," he said, "How was the train job?" Hiro half laughed, half groaned.

"You've got to be the third person to ask me that tonight, well morning now, but same thing," Hiro said, glancing at his watch.

"Just curious," Wasabi said calmly, scribbling on the paper.

"It was alright," Hiro said, downplaying the whole thing, "Although later I do want to look into the woman that was in charge of the gang."

"Why?"

"They had these strange guns," he said, "They shot out burst of electrical energy. No ammunition limit, just a battery. Normal guns in civilian hands is bad enough but these things? I want to find out who's making and distributing them so we can shut 'em down before too many of those get out."

"How do you plan on getting into the station?" Wasabi asked.

"I was thinking of asking Krei to help with that," Hiro replied, "I'm sure he knows something that could help." He then looked down at Wasabi's handiwork. "Ooh," he said excitedly, "I like that. We'll have try it out to make sure it works but I like it." Wasabi's design had added small jet boosters to the bottom of the boots and while that alone was not enough to make the kind of jumps that Hiro had in mind, the additional boosters attached to the suits gauntlets would be more than enough as well as providing greater directional control. "This is good." Wasabi grinned.

"Thought you'd like it," he said proudly, "Now I've been spitballing some ideas for modifications to my suit, strength augmentation and the like, and I wanted to run them by someone to get some feedback…"

~o~O~o~

By the time San Fransokyo had disappeared over the horizon the sky was beginning to turn a pale pink as the sun started to creep up over the hills. The car skimmed along the highway until it finally came to a stop outside a large house just parked alongside the road in the middle of nowhere. "You are allowed to get out of the car now," said the man. Katherine frowned as she climbed out of the vehicle, did anything rattle this guy? He was too calm. He had to be on something she decided, even if he was displaying no physical symptoms of mood altering medication. He and Howard led her inside and she was surprised to see that despite the house's rustic exterior, the inside resembled a commercial for Apple. Everything was white, smooth and gleaming. "This way," he said, leading her downstairs into the basement which appeared to serve as a lab room of some kind. He then turned to face her. "I imagine that you have some questions that you would like to ask," he said, smirking.

"Like, for starters, who are you?" she asked immediately. He shrugged.

"Let's just say that I am a big fan of your work," he said enigmatically.

"That's not an answer," she challenged.

"But it's all that you're getting for now," he replied.

"Why did you break me out? What do you want from me?" she asked.

"I just want you to keep working," he said, "I think that you have the potential to go far, all you need is a benevolent benefactor."

"Like you?" she asked sarcastically.

"Exactly!" he said brightly, "Now I love your work. That zappo lightning gun thing? Love it! Now, it is with that love that I must inform you that your little train heist idea was kind of dumb. Once those hero guys showed up you had no back-up plan to deal with it. The whole thing reeked of desperation. What is it that you want Miss Katherine Skylark?"

"My business," she said icily. Far from being offended, the man just continued to smile that infuriating smirk.

"No problem," he said, "After all, a woman does need to keep a little mystery about her. Anyway, I've got this little… weeell I suppose you could call it a side project coming up in the next few months and I could do with a little insurance. Basically, I'd really appreciate it if you kept on doing what it is you do best."

"Which is…?"

"Building things that go bang!" he said enthusiastically, "You whipped together those lightning guns with a box of scraps. I'd like to see what you could do with a more generous budget at your disposal. You would work here and of course you would be compensated with an absolutely absurd amount of money. Howard here would also stay to assist you. Don't let his humble appearance fool you, he is quite a quick thinker and should be able to keep up with you."

"And if I were to decline your kind offer?" she responded challengingly.

"Then the door is in that direction," he said pointing at the stairs, "After all, you are not my prisoner, no-one here is holding a gun to your head. Say the word and you're free to go… but, do you have a plan? After all, you are an escaped prisoner implicated in an attempted hostage taking situation… thing. Would staying off the grid for a while really be such bad thing?" Katherine sighed.

"Fine then," she relented, "You've got yourself a deal but you better be straight with or I'll find a way to wipe that smirk off your face. Trust me." The man in the suit looked offended.

"I would never imply that a lady was being untrustworthy," he replied haughtily.

~o~O~o~

Thanks for reading. While I know this update focussed more on the villains, I felt that since they are OCs I needed to take time to establish their characterisations. Please review and I'll see you next time with a more good guy focused chapter.