Had nothing to post for the prior two days because I was doing plotting on notecards. I'm continuing that process but also got my first draft started. Again, I make no claim on quality. This is just about getting something done.
“We’re in.”
It was much more security than one would expect for a warehouse off a country road in middle-America. That meant it was the building they were looking for. There was no personnel because that would have drawn for too much attention to what was meant to be inconspicuous. But the electronic security was has hard to crack as anything in existence. And thought the exterior looked like any other warehouse, just beyond it was yards of concrete and reinforced steel. It was a building built to withstand explosions. In less than 60 seconds the team was inside.
The Decipher (creative when it comes to breaking code and not at naming things - typical engineer) was quick enough that the team didn’t even have to resort to trying to tear down the walls. That was convenient because it meant an extra two minutes before any red flags drew unwanted attention to their presence.
Breaking through the reinforced walls would have sent off immediate alarms and emergency protocols. Accessing through the building’s security system set off a process that would notify someone in Washington of the warehouse being opened. They would then check to see if anyone had scheduled access to it that day. This would take a little while. By the time they found out that there wasn’t anyone scheduled, accessed the security cameras to confirm someone’s presence in the building, and sent out the emergency calls, two minutes would have past. The team now had that much time, plus however long they could fight off response teams, to find what they needed and get out.
The building was full of hundreds and hundreds of computer servers. Most of what was stored on these servers were dummy protocols and nonsense. That would make it all the harder to find needle in the digital haystack. The Decipher wasn’t the only code-breaker on the team (he might actually have been the most well-named). Working together with him, Decoder, Code-Hack, and The Destroyer of Security (this crew seriously needs someone with some branding expertise) figured to be able to quickly narrow down the location of the data they needed.
“How much longer?” asked Fire Ant.
“We’ve eliminated 83% of the data. We’ve gotta comb through the last 17%.” said Decipher, not answering the question.
“We’ve got incoming,” Fire Ant’s radio chirped. She had left Violet Winter in charge of a small group to keep watch undercover outside the warehouse and to ambush any responders. “It looks like The Select.” Fire Ant’s didn’t expect the team of superheroes would be asked to help out on something like this, but they hadn’t counted it out.
They had estimated that the whole task, from break-in to copying the data would take up to six minutes. That meant that they need to hold off the superheroes for another two minutes and fifty seconds. That seemed like a long time, but Fire Ant felt like she had the team shed needed to do that.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to take on a big hitter like The Prime herself, so she had The Green Gorilla take him on. She figured his near invulnerability would make up for the difference in strength. And although he couldn’t fly like The Prime, his super leaping ability meant that the hero would have to go a long ways to be out of reach.
“‘B’ team,” Fire Ant yelled in her radio.”Engage your target now.” New Moon was the most likely to figure out what was going on. She needed him distracted and she hoped a team of 4 would be enough to do it. For a man with now superpowers, he seemed able to face down challenges not even The Prime could handle.
“I really need a time, Decipher.” said Fire Ant.
“We’ve found it,” Decipher responded. “Give me 90 more seconds and it will be on its way.
Fire Ant was going to take on Iceni herself. She’d fought her several times before. And even though Iceni was nearly as powerful as Prime himself, Fire Ant knew that Iceni’s weakness was her overconfidence. Let her feel like she’s winning and she would leave herself open for attack. Fire Ant’s venomous sting was strong enough to make even Iceni woozy and weak for a few moments. At the very least, Fire Ant could kill 90 seconds against Iceni.
Everyone else engage your assignments. She had the rest of The Select facing two members of her team. She knew there was no chance for her team to win this fight and escape, but that’s not what they were being paid to do. She gathered a rag-tag bunch of villains that weren’t bright enough to actually get away with a heist like this, but were powerful enough to delay the superheroes long enough to get the data on its way. But her count of the Select showed one more than she expected. Had they added new members without a giant press conference? That would be entirely unlike them.
The man was dressed in a suit of armor. But not a dark, dull metal like one sees in a museum. Instead it was polished crystal clear. Strange appearance aside, Fire Ant decided not to bother herself with the knight. Although he had his sword drawn, it was clearly in defense. He was trying to keep hidden and observing what was going on. He had no interest in engaging.
That was a good thing for Fire Ant, because she couldn’t have done anything if he had. She was locked in a battle with Iceni. She managed to block the warrior’s blows but was allowing herself to be backed into a corner. She was just waiting for a chance to sting, or hoping that the 90 seconds were over.
“Firefly!” Decipher shouted the code word into his radio.
“Stand down, team.” Fire Ant radioed the rest.
Her plan never was to get away. All they needed was to get the data out. The knew that they would be unable to send it wirelessly once the backup security protocols were implemented. So Decipher had attached the drive to a drone the size of a dragonfly. Her team’s surrender had been orchestrated as a way to help the drone slip past The Select. They hoped that the sudden cease to fighting would surprise the Select, a team used to foes that don’t give up until physically being prevented from fighting back, would startle them. The tiny drone could quietly slip by without risk of being damaged in the fight and the heroes capable of detecting the drone’s presence wouldn’t in the confusion.
It worked exactly as planned.