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S2 Episode Eight: "Borrowing Without Permission"



At the top of the building, just as the doors opened, Adam reeled backward out of the elevator from a heavy kick to his chest.


“Give it up already!” said Viperess between breaths. “You can't hope to beat me!”


“I… was just… going… to say the same… thing…” huffed Adam, trying to catch his breath. “I was just… getting… warmed up!”


“You fight like an overconfident rookie in a dojo,” scoffed the woman. “You have much more to learn before you could possibly beat me by yourself!”


Suddenly, a line shot out from the side, snatching the case from her grip and causing her to stagger. Adam summoned all the strength he could and burst forward, barging straight into her and knocking her into the now-closed elevator doors. He pulled back and she dropped to the ground, unconscious.


“Good thing I’m not alone,” he said to her as if she could still hear him.


He turned to his left where Lance stood, grapple launcher in one hand, the case in the other.


“How did you get up here so fast?” he questioned.


Lance flashed the grapple in his right hand.


“There was just enough space between the stairs in the stairwell to shoot a line up and zip all the way up,” he answered.


“Oh, that makes sense,” said Adam.


He looked back down at Viperess.


“What do we do with them?” asked Adam.


“We could take them all to the lobby, tie them up, and set off the alarms,” suggested Lance. “The police can take care of them from there.”


“Sounds good to me,” said Adam as he bowed over, placing his hands on his knees.


He reached up and pressed the button for the elevator, which opened moments after.


“As much as I dislike this elevator at the moment, I'm not feeling like taking the stairs right now,” he said with a light chuckle.


Lance laughed at his friend as he holstered his grapple, then handed the case to Adam. After Adam took it, Lance reached down, lifted up the unconscious woman, and hefted her over his shoulder.


“You can take the heavy one,” joked Lance as he stepped onto the elevator.


Adam shook his head in amusement as he straightened himself up and followed.


The ride down the elevator back to the lobby seemed to take forever since they weren't preoccupied with fighting anyone or sneaking around anymore. The few minutes they spent standing in silence felt like twenty, but they finally arrived at the lobby. Adam looked around, counting the still unconscious bodies Lance left sprawled on the lobby floor.


“Um… I believe we're short one big, scary African-American male…” he stated.


“Mamba is gone?” asked Lance as he carried Viperess out of the elevator.


“Looks like it,” answered Adam. “He must be a tougher nut to crack than the others.”


“He probably thinks that Viperess gave you the slip, too,” said Lance.


He laid the small woman down next to one of the Ouroboros grunts.


“We need to find something to tie them all with,” said Lance.


“I’ll search the utility closet down the hallway for something,” said Adam.


“We really should look into restraints we can carry on us,” noted Lance, more to himself than to Adam.


“We could improvise on handcuffs like what my brother uses,” suggested Adam as he walked down the hall.


“L.A.S.S.I., make a reminder to look that up later,” said Lance.


Between the two of them, the Ouroboros who remained were securely restrained with a combination of wires, cords, and some ropes that were scavenged together. They climbed back to the roof and set off the fire alarm on the top floor of the building just before using their grapples to swing and climb to the higher roof across the street. They posted watch as the emergency response units sped to the scene to find no fire, but a collection of rather annoyed intruders tied up in the foyer of the building.


“Shouldn’t we have left the Skeleton Key back at their lab?” asked Adam as he continued to look on.


“We will...” said Lance. “... just as soon as L.A.S.S.I. finishes copying the files….”


“Say what?” asked Adam as he spun around.


He turned to see that Lance held a small console similar in size to a smartphone from which a large data chip protruded from the top.


“So.. we are okay with stealing too?” asked Adam, confused.


“Borrowing someone else's toys,” corrected Lance. “The bad guys won't play by all the rules we do; we need to have some kind of advantage and this is one of them.”


Adam shrugged.


“Makes sense I suppose,” he said. “How will we get it back over without getting caught? The place is crawling with police…”


The revving of a high-powered engine, one very familiar to Adam, blasted over the commotion on the street level.


“... Including my brother now…” added Adam.


“Are there any on or near the roof?” asked Lance.


Adam checked with his thermal visor.


“Not yet, but they're heading that way,” he said.


A faint beep sounded from Lance's device.


“Then there is no time to waste,” he stated as he unplugged the chip.

He placed it back into the hard case they had acquired, then clipped it to the harness at his hip.


“Wait here,” he said. “No need to risk both of us to getting caught.”


With that, he ran to the edge of the roof towards the GenTek building, pulling out and firing his grapple just before he jumped off the side. Adam watched in shock, knowing better, but half expecting Lance to not make it across the gap. Thankfully they were just high enough on the other side of the four-lane road that Lance managed to reach the GenTek roof without an issue… except for the squad of police who had just exited the stairwell onto the roof…


Without breaking from the momentum of his swing, Lance took several wide steps, then rolled behind a set of air conditioning units just as the police spotted the blur of his movement. On high alert, one of them radioed to the others downstairs while the others brought their weapons to the ready. Lance stayed in a low crouch, assessing the situation.


“I wasn't fast enough, was I?” he asked Adam over the radio.


“Not quite…” replied Adam. “I should've specified how close they were…”


“How many are there?” asked Lance.


“Four,” answered Adam as he checked his thermals. “They're splitting up to either side of your location.”


Lance unclipped the case from his belt and set it on the ground. He checked his pouch to find there weren't any smoke bombs left. He activated his advanced visor mode to check the distance between himself and the closest ledge. He was in the middle of deciding whether or not it was close enough to attempt to reach it when he heard the sound of glass shattering.


“Over there! You two check that out!” said one of the officers.


The two on his right ran just past his spot, leaving the two coming on his left. He took the chance with a spontaneous idea and quickly slid the case out on their side, dashing the other direction at the same time.


“BOMB! FALL BACK!” shouted one of them.


Lance pushed for the edge without looking back and performed a similar maneuver as he did before. He reached the other side just as the squad noticed him. He could hear one of them yelling over their radio as he met up with Adam where he had left him.


“I'm guessing that was you this time?” he asked as he noticed Adam had his grapple drawn.


“Yup, just diverting the police with a few broken lights,” said Adam. “But we should probably get a move on before they get up here looking for us.”


“Agreed. I think after we escape that it will be about time to call it a night.”


The duo turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, leaping from the rooftop to the next. They had gone several roofs down before the police had managed to reach the one they were at before, only to find it vacant.


“L.A.S.S.I., route us to our starting point, please,” asked Lance.


“Routing…” came the reply as a nav point appeared.


The green arrow flashed a couple of times, then a miniature map appeared with a line for them to follow.


“What time is it anyway?” asked Adam with a yawn.


“It is now three a.m.,” stated the A.I.


“Yeah…” started Lance. “... of all the things I DID put into the visor software, a clock is something I forgot about… wait THREE in the morning? We definitely need to get back! We have class in… five hours!”


“Heh, time flies when you're saving the city!” chuckled Adam.

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