Furnace's reluctance to strike at the nearing Sonika presented a much bigger problem for her strategy than the climbing temperature. Sure, it was getting hot and Sonika wasn't impervious to the heat. But more importantly it meant he had some experience with combating proficient enemies. He seemed to know that if he swung first she would be able to counter-attack, or at the very least he was banking on exploiting a strike from Sonika for a counter-attack of his own. He had the upper-hand and he knew it. To make matters worse, Sonika felt the air being disturbed behind her as someone opened the rooftop access door. She wasn't about to take her eyes off Furnace to see who it was but she could tell it was only one, likely meaning this was another parahuman vigilante or perhaps one of the PRT capes.
"I will have to decline that offer," she spoke up again, this time taking a step back away from Furnace rather than closer. It seemed he was the source of heat as the air felt ever-so-slightly cooler. As well she could feel the air that was farther from Furnace was less effected by the updraft the heat created. Sonika was already able to deduce that he could make the air significantly hotter than it is right now, being that he was able to affect her earlier without being close enough for her to detect him. This was also a sign that he was genuinely trying not to harm her, as opposed to using that same amount of heat earlier at this closer range to cook her alive. Whether it was kindness or weakness it still provided insight for Sonika's next move.
The supervillain leaped backwards, using a controlled burst of air from underneath both her feet to make the jump achieve a superhuman distance. She landed near the rooftop access door, very close to Celia (whom Sonika still had not identified). As soon as she landed there was a powerful rush of air from the stairwell leading up to the access door behind Celia, with enough force to take an average human being off their feet and send them sprawling onto the floor of the roof at Sonika's feet. If Furnace, or Celia, hadn't figured it out immediately it was going to become very clear that Sonika was taking a hostage. She briefly glanced down at Celia, finally identifying the intruder as a young woman who was wearing a mask. Likely parahuman but it wouldn't matter at this point.
"Nobody move or I kill the girl."Only now, with this new upper-hand achieved, did Sonika take a moment to become less tense and more calm. She could take in details better, such that this new parahuman girl she was threatening didn't seem to be breathing. This opened many questions about what her powers were, but indicated that she would not be susceptible to suffocating. To make good on her threat she would have to crush the girl, though if she was some kind of Brute classification then that would be unlikely to work. Alternatively she could throw the girl off the rooftop, but if she would be strong enough to survive Sonika's power then a fall wouldn't kill her either. It could, however, trick Furnace into going after her to save her. After all he may not know who this girl is either. If they were allies surely she would've engaged Sonika at her first chance when her back was to her. Instead she chose to spectate. The options were limited at this point but with Furnace constantly raising the heat it wouldn't give Sonika a chance to attack him directly. If he were to keep the temperature constant she could adjust to the new airflow and attack him at full power, but the alternating temperatures created updrafts that would reduce her power.
At the very least this could give her an opportunity if Furnace dialed back his power in light of the hostage situation. If he stopped increasing the temperature, just for a few seconds, Sonika knew she could send him off the roof with a few broken bones as a souvenir. But Sonika wasn't about to place all her bets on two possible good outcomes. The girl had a revolver holstered on her hip. Sonika moved the air around the holster, releasing the weapon from its restraints, before attempting to send it upward with a vertical gust. It would be a simple maneuver to catch the weapon with her right hand without taking her attention away from Furnace and would give her a good out on the possibility of her powers being ineffective at handling either of the other two on the roof. Something like a magnum round would possibly go through Furnace's armor, or at the very least make the shot to the chin fatal, and if the girl was a Brute perhaps it would be powerful enough to break her skin and damage. Only a maybe on that end though.
Cassidy Hendricks - Macavity's Batcave Bunker
The intricate, lengthy, and complicated steps at first seemed silly to Cassidy. There was no way he couldn't just be joking. But as the process of entering his safe house continued it began to dawn upon the girl that the thief was serious as could be. Once he made the grand reveal of the safe house, which was much more akin to a "safe mansion" in Cassidy's eyes, this only opened the floodgates for more questions.
"Wh-... how? How did you get all this set up? How much did it cost? Just how much money do you have? How does nobody know about this? Did you do all this yourself?" Perhaps Macavity was hoping that he wouldn't be bombarded with more questions but the young girl's amazement had started a brand new inquisition.
"Does the city know about this? What about the power and utilities? How..." She began to trail off as she walked around the room to examine some of the goodies that Macavity had stolen over the years. Her eye was particularly drawn to the literal pile of gold bars next to the bed.
Despite just being told not to touch anything she immediately picked up one of the bars of gold. She had never believed people actually kept bars of gold, believing it was just a movie trope. The weight of it surprised her, as well as how the gold wasn't particularly shiny. But something about it felt like it was real gold and not some kind of prop.
"When did you... But... How long have you been doing this?" The final question of her barrage, as Cassidy turned to face Macavity with the gold still in hand.
"There's no way you could've done all this yourself. You're only..." Cassidy was going to say "human" but immediately realized that she would've been wrong. He wasn't human. He was superhuman. And so was she. The gravity of the situation seemed to increase in her mind as she realized just what could be accomplished with superpowers. She had never really practiced her power and sparsely used it, only enough to figure out how it works and then recently to escape her captors. Were these the kinds of things she could do? Would she be able to obtain riches? Perform incredible feats that no human could hope to replicate?
The young girl sat down on the edge of the bed, setting the gold bar on her lap and looking down at it while she still held it. She had to remind herself that these things weren't
his. He was a thief. He broke the law. A criminal that stole to obtain everything in this room. But at the same time he wasn't a
bad guy. He was just using his powers to their full potential for his own good. And he was equipped enough to be able to thrive this much all by himself, if he wasn't lying. Being able to defend himself and being able to provide for himself, in this unfair world of superpowers, showed Cassidy a prime example of the parahuman life she had been avoiding until this point.
She could do all this too if she wanted. "... Why did you start stealing things?" Cassidy finally asked, her voice much more calm and sincere for this question as opposed to the flustered and excited tone she had earlier.
