The Con Job: Chapter Six

This story is part of the League of Five series. For more stories, and for other chapters in this story, please check the wiki.

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The Shadow dashed into an unoccupied room, not far from the bathroom she had left her bags in. She took a quick look around the room, finding only shelves of paint cans, tools and other maintenance essentials. She set it down on the ground and reached into her satchel for the guard’s keys. To her relief, one fit into the lock.

The key was still in the lock when Olympian Blue burst into the room. They stared at each other, wide-eyed and astonished, before the hero ran at her. The Shadow backed away, nearly slipping on a puddle.

Before she could react, Olympian Blue clenched his fists. The puddle underneath Shadow’s feet froze. She yelped in fright and tried to hold her footing.

“Hand it over,” Olympian Blue called out. “We’ll go easier on you if you do.”

“Maybe later,” Shadow called out as she carefully stepped away.

“I’m not playing around,” she heard Olympian Blue say, just as the door crashed open again. Shadow fought the urge to scream.

The Shadow had never had such a close call on a job before. Sure, she had had to run from the police or the heroes, but she had never been trapped. She could feel panic bubbling up within her and her power react to her distress. She tamped down on both quickly. She couldn’t afford to use too much of her power. That would just make things worse later.

Trying to maintain her calm, the Shadow waited until Blue had moved far enough. He soon stood next to a shelf that sagged with the weight of numerous cans of paint. The shelf already looked quite precarious, and only a tiny amount of her power would be needed to make it collapse.

Blue started to run at her. The Shadow release a little of her power. To her surprise, the shelf didn’t collapse by itself. Instead, Blue slipped on the patch of ice he had made and fell into it.

The Shadow didn’t wait to see the aftermath, guessing by the hero’s swearing that only his pride was injured.

As she ran to the door, she nearly crashed into PathFinder, looking almost as surprised as she felt. Still a little panicked, Shadow threw the display case at him. While he fumbled with the case, she took the opportunity to sprint out the door, and towards the bathroom.

A Shadow cosplayer and a Doctor Spectre cosplayer, presumably the ones she had seen before, were walking down the corridor.

“Sorry. Got to go. Thank you. Awesome costumes,” Shadow screamed as she passed them and turned the corner.

When she finally had her bags in hand, the Shadow breathed a sigh of relief. Knowing that her power was still brimming inside her, she released her grip on it, and felt it slip away. She didn’t want to hold onto it and risk leaks, even if she would have to deal with the backlash immediately.

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Blue pushed over the cans of paint and, oddly enough, glitter, that had fallen over him. He could feel both in his hair and on his body, attempted to brush himself off, a little dazed. He grimaced when he realised that he had just managed to smear the paint.

“Blue,” he heard Path call out.

“Coming,” he replied, trying to push himself up.

Blue wobbled a little as he walked over the patch of ice he had made. He couldn’t believe that he had been caught in the trap he had made for the Shadow.

Path took a look at Blue, and his eyes widened.

“Don’t say anything,” Blue warned.

Path just snickered.

It took Blue a moment to realise that Path was holding the display case, with the key still in the lock and the belt sitting inside.

“You managed to get it from her?” he asked incredulously.

“Not exactly,” Path admitted sheepishly. “She kind of threw it at me while she was running away.”

“She left the belt behind?”

“Maybe she decided she’d rather not go to jail?”

Blue peered warily into the case. The belt looked as worn as it had when he had seen it several hours ago. If anything, it looked a little less cared for, as though someone had knocked it around. But, something about it seemed a little off to him.

He swore when he realised what was wrong. The buckle was scratched and dirty, but the little mark left by his and Sunny’s misadventure was missing.

It’s a fake!

Wait. What?

She must have switched it.

Blue and Path exchanged glances.

You could go after her, Path said. You could still catch up and get it back. I’ll take this back to the booth, and no one ever has to know.

It took Blue a moment to understand what Path was saying. He shook his head, feeling oddly vulnerable and more than a little touched.

I can’t do that. It would be an even worse insult to my mother’s memory to steal it myself.

Path just snorted and shook his head. “Whatever. We’ve still got to arrest Shadow, so we should find her.”

Blue grinned one last time at his teammate before they walked out. They had barely left the room, when Blue saw the Shadow and Doctor Spectre standing in the corridor.

“Are you serious?”

Both women gaped at the sight of Blue.

“Is that paint some kind of statement?” the Shadow asked hesitantly.

“I don’t think they’re real,” PathFinder said.

“Are you sure? I feel pretty real to me.”

Blue and Path both turned to stare at the woman, “Are you admitting that you really are the Shadow?”

“What? No!”

“She’s telling the truth, Blue.”

This was insane. Next time there was a convention, Blue would ask the Leopard to send someone else.

“Ladies,” Blue said as patiently as he could. “The Shadow and Doctor Spectre tried to steal the Dark Angel’s belt and escaped. Have you seen them? Why aren’t you with the evacuees? How did you get in?”

“A group of us just got back from lunch! We don’t know anything about an evacuation! We just came in through the carpark. There aren’t any gates or anything to stop pedestrians.”

“There was a woman who just ran past us” ‘Spectre’ said. “She was dressed as the Shadow–”

She was cut off by shrill screaming.

Blue ran toward the screaming, and heard Path following him. He burst in through a door. A woman dressed as Sunshine swore as she attempted to block a broken tap with her hands.

“Are you alright?” Blue shouted.

The woman just screamed louder when she saw Blue, and threw something at him. He caught it instinctively and turned around when more shrill screaming started behind him.

“Pervert,” a woman screamed. “Get out!”

Several bags hit his shoulders and chest, as he raced out the door again.

“I’m sorry,” Blue shouted. “I heard screaming and just reacted.”

Blue fell and landed heavily on the ground when the woman who had been screaming crashed into him.

“Sorry,” the woman squeaked, blushing bright red.

She tried to absently brush the glitter off her costume, only to realise that the pink paint was sticking to her. She stared in dismay at her glittery pink and yellow costume.

“Oh, shit,” someone said sympathetically. “That’s ruined now.”

Blue noticed several glares being cast at him.

“Ladies,” he said, holding up his hands. “I’m sorry. I was chasing the Shadow and I heard screaming.”

The horde of angry fangirls continued to glare.

“I saw someone running that way when I got into the bathroom,” the pink and yellow Sunshine replied, pointing to the exit. “She was dressed as the Shadow.”

“Thank you,” Blue said with as much dignity as he could muster. “I’m sorry about the bathroom thing.”

As he got up and walked away, he noticed PathFinder leaning against a wall, convulsing in giggles.

“Not a word,” Blue warned.

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Doctor Spectre stood behind the barrier with the evacuees, back in her Lady Steele costume. She had even managed to find a mask to complete it.

While she waited for her teleporter to cool down, Spectre tried to blend in with the rest of the crowd by watching the heroes. At least, that’s what she told herself.

Several people were taking pictures and videos. The Pyro, flailing his legs, with his mouth taped and Sunshine sitting on his back, would no doubt be going viral. Several videos had already been posted of the Pyro struggling and swearing colourfully until Sunshine had taped his mouth shut.

Lady Steele came out, holding Spectre’s old mask in her hand. She said something to Sunshine, which made both women laugh, then sat down on the Pyro’s legs.

Spectre felt an odd pang of longing. Lady Steele’s joking suggestion that she join the team had caused a loneliness that she thought she had buried. Spectre knew that she couldn’t join the League of Five. It was unlikely they could help her get her revenge. But she couldn’t stop watching.

Several police vehicles arrived on the scene. The guard from the History of Heroism exhibit ran over to them. Even from a distance, Spectre could hear snatches of his panicked words.

“…let me in. The belt… worth more than…”

Sunshine held up hands, saying something soothingly. The man ignored her and continued to rant. A police officer grabbed at his arm, but the guard shook him off.

“Please! If my boss…”

A small group of women wandered out of the doors of the convention centre, casting baleful looks at the heroes behind them. Spectre noted with amusement that PathFinder was holding the belt’s display case. She wondered if the Shadow had replaced it with a fake before ‘losing’ it, as she had planned.

There was a short burst of laughter and cheers when Olympian Blue walked out, irritated and covered in glittery, pink paint. Spectre noted that one of the women was also covered in paint, and wondered exactly what the Shadow had done. Olympian Blue shooed the women over the barricades.

The guard gave a cry of relief at the sight of the case in PathFinder’s arms and ran over to wrestle it from him. PathFinder let go only after Lady Steele nodded in approval. That was interesting.

Suddenly weary, Spectre turned to walk away. She cast one last glance at the heroes, and saw that Lady Steele was looking directly at her. Wondering whether the woman had just noticed her costume, or if she had realised that it was Spectre, she hurried away.

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