Wendy McHarlin. She confused me.
"What do you think of this dress?"
On one hand, she was annoying as hell.
"Red isn't your color, Emma."
"Is too!"
"You've got red hair and you have a warm undertone."
"That doesn't mean anything."
"Yes, yes it does. At least pick like this darker red rather than this."
"That is a nice shade of red… I like this dress though."
"It's still not your color.'
On the other hand, she wasn't afraid to fight.
"I love the style. Think they've got it in blue?"
"Yeah, right here, not sure though."
"I meant for me Emma, I think that'd look great on me."
"Mads, it's too big for you."
"They have smaller sizes!"
The fact she'd given me a black eye that one time was proof.
"Sophia, what do you think?"
If she weren't such a fucking goody-goody two-shoes, maybe she'd be worth hanging around more. She was though, still basically a kid with how much she cared about "the right thing" and the "wrong thing". As if she had any idea what the world was like outside of the comfy bubble that was her life.
"Does she space out like this often?"
"No, this is new."
I let out a groan and rubbed the bridge of my nose. Wendy, Emma, and Madison were just staring at me. The four of us were in one of those overpriced boutiques on the Boardwalk. Why Emma was looking at a fucking five hundred dollar dress, I had no damn clue.
"Emma, I don't know. Wendy's right that Red isn't your color, try… purple?" The nearby rack had like, every damn color on it. "Why are you even looking at dresses you can't buy?"
"I might save up for it." She rolled her eyes at me and put it back. "Besides, what else are we going to do?"
"I don't know, anything else?" I droned out, glancing towards the window.
The Boardwalk had to be one of the worst damn places in the city. It wasn't anything more than a shiny-ass tourist trap for people with more money than sense. The fact it was close to Christmas just made it so much worse, with stupid decorations up everywhere, and people swarming the place.
It made trying to keep an eye out for threats even more difficult.
"I'd rather be back at my own house as well." Wendy rolled her eyes, pulling her phone out and glancing at it.
"What, hoping your hero's gonna text you?" Emma snarked at her and got a glare in return.
"Checking the time, Ems." Wendy ground out. "Counting the minutes until the heartbreak of not having to spend time with you."
"Oh, love you two, Wendy." Emma put a hand above her heart and gave a mocking smile.
"Wendy, you don't have to be here, you know." I waved a hand towards the door. "It's right there, you can go."
"And listen to my parents complain about how I didn't spend more time with my cousin like they asked?" Her face scrunched up a little, and she shook her head. "Yeah, no thanks. Rather deal with you two for an hour or two than them being disappointed."
There it was again, that stupid goody-goody two-shoes bullshit she'd do. Not wanting to disappoint her parents, like bitch at least you had a parent to disappoint. Why did you have to make it our problem?
"That record store's still open, we could head over there?" Madison spoke up and I blinked. I'd honestly forgotten she had even been there.
"What, you want another CD for your collection Mads?" Emma glanced at her and she shrugged.
"Don't think anything new's come out… I want to see if they still have those Black Canary collectible CDs. Those things are getting super expensive."
"Can't you just listen to that shit online?" Madison and Wendy both rolled their eyes at me.
"Collectible Sophia, collectible. In like, five years, getting your hands on one of those is going to be impossible." Madison explained and I fought back a bit of anger. She wasn't trying to piss me off, she was just being a music snob.
"Not like you can afford it Mads." Wendy threw in and she deflated.
"I've been saving money. If it's still there after Christmas I could probably afford it." Wendy nodded in response and I rolled my eyes. Of course, Madison would blow all of her money on some stupid music thing.
"Well." Emma put the dress back as she spoke. "Why don't you two head on over there? Sophia and I will catch up. Got a place on the way I want to stop and take a look at."
"Okay." Wendy took the opportunity and ran with it. Almost literally, walking as quickly as she could out of the boutique.
"See you there." Madison gave us a wave as she hurried to follow after Wendy.
I let out a small sigh and refocused. It was way easier to keep an eye out when those two weren't here distracting me. The store wasn't completely packed, but there was a small crowd. The fact that this corner was empty was just a fucking godsend.
"You need to relax Sophia." That made me blink, and I glared at Emma.
"We both know why I can't do that." I fingered the knife in my hoodie, the buckle undone on its sheath.
"We're on the Boardwalk. There are people everywhere. No one's going to try anything." It mostly sounded to me like she was trying to convince herself.
"You don't know that for certain, Emma. We don't know who your grandpa owed money to." There was always the chance it might have been a gang with a teleporter, a flyer, or something. Emma was a fighter but she wouldn't stand up to a cape. Pepper spray only went so far.
"There's enforcers everywhere and there's probably a Hero somewhere here as well. They're not going to try anything." She rolled her eyes, still seeming more to be convincing herself than anything.
"I'm not going to relax until this is dealt with Emma. The fact I haven't been able to find out shit is worrying enough." How many damn nights had I been hunting for a lead? Too many, that's for sure.
Whoever was harassing the Barnes for money was hiding their trail, really damn well. A visit to her grandpa's old place turned up nothing. Interrogating the criminals around his place turned up nothing. Trying to track down where the calls were from had turned up nothing.
It pissed me off to no end. Fuckers didn't even have the balls to show their faces. All we had to go on were hunches and guesswork. My best guess was the Empire, it fits their MO, but Emma didn't buy it. She thought it was the ABB, apparently her grandpa liked prostitutes.
The thought made me sick, but neither was confirmed. There was no way to tell if it was a local gang or some group abroad or even just a single guy who was pissed off.
"Fine Sophia. As long as you don't try to murder Wendy or something. Don't need that on top of everything else." She sighed and moved to the exit, and I followed her.
It was a fucking winter wonderland out here. They'd cleared out the snow from most of the Boardwalk, but piles of the stuff were still against walls and under windows. With all the damn Christmas decorations, it looked like some elves had shit all over the place. The worst part was the crowd, families taking their kids to see Santa, couples doing lovey-dovey shit, and desperate people trying to find last-minute Christmas gifts.
Even as I tried, I knew there was no way I could pick a threat out. There were too many people, and too much confusion, short of someone staring dead at the two of us, I wouldn't notice. It put me on edge, even more than I already had been.
We started heading over to the music store. Emma stuck close to me, it was obvious she wasn't as confident as she let on. My eyes scanned over the crowd and landed on a pair of enforcers. They were watching us, and I tensed up.
"Excuse us." They stepped in front of us. "We need you to come with us for a moment."
"What, why?" Emma shifted back, a hint of nervousness coming into her voice.
"One of the shopkeepers for a store you visited thinks you may have shoplifted." The one on the right smiled, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. The good cop, then. "I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding. Just got to step aside so we can check your bags, put their mind at ease."
"We didn't steal anything," I wrapped a hand around Emma's arm and growled.
Could we get away if we made a run for it? I could. Emma probably couldn't. Without my power, there was no way I could take these two in a fight. The crowd wouldn't see two girls being harassed or abducted, just two enforcers trying to deal with riff-raff. No one was going to help us.
"Not saying you did, just gotta do our jobs, you know?" He kept on smiling, even as his partner sneered a little. Neither seemed to have any weapons on them, but it was impossible to tell with the jackets.
"Okay." Emma gave me a nervous look and I nodded. If they tried something private, I wouldn't have to worry about using my power to deal with them.
I already knew Woody's knife went through bone without any problems.
Righty smiled and Lefty rolled his eyes, motioning us to head into one of the alleyways. The staff at the shops and the enforcers alike used them for doing shit out of the sight of the tourists. It both made sense for a search and an ambush.
It'd help me as well, not that they knew that.
Emma stuck close to me as we were led deeper in, her hand in her purse, where I knew she had her pepper spray. It wouldn't be as useful with the sunglasses the enforcers were wearing.
We eventually turned a corner into what I could only assume was a staff-only parking lot. Two other enforcers were standing there, beside a very nervous-looking Madison and a worried Wendy.
There were plenty of vehicles parked back here. It was impossible to say which vehicle they'd want to use. A couple of different vans for random businesses were nearby, as well as some SUVs any of them could be the getaway vehicle.
"Alright girls, we'll make this quick," Righty spoke up again, still all smiles as we stepped over to the other four. "We just need you all to empty your pockets and purses. If you don't want to empty your purse just hand it to one of us and we'll check through it for you."
None of us moved right away, glancing nervously at each other. Madison was the first to do something, holding her purse out to one of the enforcers.
"Here. We didn't steal anything. I can tell you that." One of the enforcers took her purse and made a show of lightly sifting through it.
Wendy started pulling things out of her pockets, and Emma did the same with her purse. I dug into one of my pants pockets with my free hand, watching the feet of the enforcer nearest to me. My hand still on my knife.
It all went to shit in an instant.
They lunged for us all at once, the back door to a nearby van slamming open as two more guys jumped out. There was no time to think as Righty tried to grab me. I ripped the knife out and swiped at his hand, blood spurting free as I took some fingers off.
He yelled in pain and staggered back, a syringe in his other hand. There was screaming, Madison maybe, I couldn't see her. What I could see was Emma's pepper spray shooting wide into the air as Lefty drove the syringe into her neck.
One of the other enforces pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket and I dove for cover. There was a retort as he fired, the bullet shattering a windshield.
"We only need the redheads!" One of the enforcers yelled. I tried to raise my head only to duck back down as another gunshot sounded off. Wendy's yelling cut off with a thump and a gagging noise. Madison had stopped screaming.
I fell flat and rolled under the SUV I was next to. Madison stared back at me from a car over, wide-eyed and hyperventilating, clutching a can of pepper spray. The enforcers were all climbing back into the van, dragging Emma and Wendy. Emma's pepper spray, a blood-stained knife, two lost fingers, and a phone all sat on the ground between us.
Shit, fuck, why hadn't I just jumped them in the fucking alleyway. I could have killed the two of them quickly with my power and then gotten over here to save Wendy and Madison. They shut the van doors and I rolled out from under the SUV.
Even as I got to my feet, they were driving off. Trying to catch them on foot wouldn't work. I grabbed the bloodstained knife, figuring I'd need a backup. It felt exactly like the other knife. That confirmed it.
Flicking it closed and shoving it into my pocket, I dragged Madison from under her car.
"Madison. Take Wendy's phone and call Amy Dallon." Police would be too slow. Whoever did this had some money, and I'd need backup. "Tell her what happened, and tell her to contact Shadow Cat."
"Wh-What?" She was still in shock, shit. I slapped her across the face.
"Wendy's phone, Amy Dallon, Shadow-Cat!" I screamed at her and she finally nodded.
Shoving her towards where Wendy's phone was on the ground, I sprinted towards the side of a building. Putting my other knife back into its sheath while moving was practice. Jumping on the trunk of a car, I got to the hood and leaped.
Flicking into my shadow state let me get the height needed. My fingers caught the edge of the roof as I rematerialized, slamming into it with a grunt. Scrambling up to the top, I unfolded a bandana from my pocket.
Tying it around my face as I ran, trying to catch up with the van. With traffic, they couldn't go too fast even if they drove recklessly. It'd let me keep up with it even if I couldn't catch it.
Whoever kidnapped my best friend was going to fucking pay.
