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[color=b80000]”Look, Randy, I know that you really wanted to try this out, but now that I’ve got the augmentium it just feels really stupid. I wanna beat the &*$% outta Metas and get some respect, not get you the money to buy a PS4. I can just [i]steal[/i] you one, for %&@#’s sake!”[/color]

“Dude, robbing banks might as well be in the %&@#in’ supervillain starter pack. I mean, the banks have been robbed so many times they’ve got security up the ass and wannabe heroes just sitting around waiting for &*$% to go down so they can show off. This could be a golden opportunity to fight somebody without looking all desperate! What, you wanna send an email to Icon telling him to meet up for a duel to the death in the park?”

[color=b80000]”Ughhh. You suck so bad. Are you gonna be filming? Don’t get in the way, just get in and look like you’re totally not an accomplice. If you get me punching out a Meta on tape I’ll steal you twenty PS4s.”[/color]

Randy toyed with the cap on his slim little camcorder, pointing it at her and grinning. “Plus games?”

Taylor slipped her goggles on. Maverick elbowed her friend in the gut and smirked. [color=b80000]”Shut the %&@# up, dude. Go inside and hide that thing until I come in so you don’t look all suspicious.”[/color] Randy saluted, climbing out of the driver’s side of his car that he’d parked in the alleyway half a block from the bank. He suddenly paused and pat the lump of the camcorder in his hoodie pocket.

“So it won’t be suspicious that some random unattended kid happens to have a camcorder rolling just as a robbery goes down?”

[color=b80000]”Shut uuup! Go, go!”[/color] Maverick waited for Randy to disappear around the corner, walking along the sidewalk that led to the front steps of the bank. She leaned back in the passenger seat of the rickety blue car Randy had found in the dump just a year before. She ran a fingertip at along a loose flap of the duct tape he’d used to mend the worn leather of the interior and eyed the cracked dash she rested her boots upon. Randy was a smart kid, patching it up like he did with a little bit of Christian’s help and loads of manuals. He’d make a good mechanic someday. She glanced down the alley and wondered if he was in the bank already, growing impatient. Maybe she didn’t need someone to film her first few exploits after all. Was it really worth toting someone else around? [i][color=b80000]Especially some stupid no-powered—Ugh. Stop right there, Taylor. [/color][/i]

Randy had to be ready. She couldn’t afford to look stupid and make him wait a couple minutes! What if someone decided to ask him where his parents were? [i][color=b80000]Well, in coffins, technically.[/color][/i] She popped open the car and poked her head around the corner of the alley, spotting the nice-looking front of the bank where a few people milled around, having lunch in the shade on the steps or lining up at the ATMs. She took a step back, settled into her augmentium form—a feeling she was still getting used to—and began to scale the alleyside wall of the building nearest her by shoving her gleaming fingers into the brick like a hunk of wet clay. It was only a handful of stories high, and she drank in the bountiful aerial view of the bank. Hell yeah, it had a skylight. Reinforced, but nothing her kickass new body couldn’t handle. She could almost pick out Randy’s yellow hoodie from the people inside. 

She hadn’t really tried out the proper leaping capabilities of her augmentium form yet. Or her strength at all, really. But she could bet that she was at least four times stronger in her current form than she was back in her nickel form, a bet that she won when she vastly overshot the leap from the building she was on to the center of the skylight. She watched the avenue between them fly by beneath her feet. And the skylight. And the bank. She crashed straight through the window of an office building a block and a half away from her estimated landing zone, touching down in some poor shmuck’s cubicle in an explosion of glass. She groaned, sitting up and finding her head had punched perfectly through his computer monitor, giving her an inch-thick square necklace. The office guy whimpered when she peeled it away effortlessly and chucked it out the hole in the building she’d left behind, sending it plummeting to the street below. [color=silver]”&*$%! %&@#! Ugh, this [b]sucks![/b]”[/color] She suddenly turned on the man, grabbing his tie and tugging it so tight he hacked and, judging by his expression, began formulating different ways to beg for his life. [color=silver]”You think you’re so %&@#in’ great, yeah? Got a wife and kids? Yeah? Scared &*$%less, [b]yeah?[/b]”[/color] 

“Hhh—pl-plea…” 

Taylor leered down at him as he stared, wide-eyed, at his bulbous reflection in the lenses of her goggles. Her upper lip took on a disgusted curl and she dropped him in a heap. [color=silver]”Man, I’m getting distracted.“[/color] Strolling to the edge of the car-sized entrance, she sighed at the precipice and leaned out into the wind, surveying the street below before bounding over it entirely.

This time the skylight came into closer view, rushing forward until her hands extended to rip through the little metal reinforcements like a diver slipping into water. She landed hard enough to crack the flooring of the bank, facing the tellers and people in line to the chorus of fifty shocked cries as glass rained down on them. She raised her arms up in a gaudy gesture and bellowed, [color=silver]”Alright you @#&*s, gimme all the cash in your wallets and all your jewelry! Hey, you. Round up all the money in this craphouse and get it into—“[/color] She paused and pat her belt, where the sack she was going to use was missing. [color=silver]”&*$%! &*$%!!  Aaaaghhh! I forgot the bag! God, just give me as much money as you can bring out and I’ll just—just give it to me. Now!”[/color]

She jabbed a finger in the direction of a few people who had to guts to pull out their phones to record, including Randy with his camera. [i][color=b80000]Sorry, Randy. New plan. Things aren’t working out and I don’t want this embarrassing crap on the record.[/color][/i] [color=silver]”I swear to [b]god[/b], I’m gonna break all your legs in a few seconds. [b]Drop th—[/b]”[/color] Her feet flew up in front of her face and she crashed to the floor in a pile, like someone had wrapped string around her waist and tugged her onto her ass.

[color=gold]”Seeing how badly your little operation was going, I almost didn’t feel the need to get involved; let the police do their jobs for once. But threatening bystanders I can’t let stand.”[/color] 

[i][color=b80000]Oh, [b]hell[/b] yes.[/color][/i] Taylor tilted her head back, getting an upside-down view of her newfound adversary from her vantage point on the floor. He was clad in leather armor with golden accents and buckles, gripping the handle of a thick whip. The business end was wrapped snugly about her waist. Whatever it was made of was strong—stronger than her metal, even, and crackled alive with magic runes as she ripped and tore at it in an attempt to stand. As she struggled, she cackled and rolled upright to get a better look at him. [color=silver]”Ahahaha! Who the hell are you? Captain Safe Word? Lemme go so I can beat the &*$% outta you!”[/color]

His lips curled in disdain. [color=gold]”Wonderful. An uncreative, poorly-organized pottymouth with more bloodlust than brains. Just the kind of villain I needed to crush as my debut.”[/color] His expression shifted to one of sternness. [color=gold]“This whip is infused with more electricity than a thousand lightning bolts. Obviously I won’t be incapacitating you with all of that.”[/color]

Taylor could only smirk at him. [color=silver]”You think[/color] [b][color=black]I’m gonna go down so easy?”[/color][/b]