“You’ve one single task to do, gotcha? Girly?” asked the towering man with sweaty arms while polluting the air with his unbearable pseudo-manly odour, dubbed poison by the only two girls in the group.

“Lovely, a nice harrowing experience with a baldy in the morning,” mused the newly awakened super villainess, ignoring her discourteous colleague.

“Attitude. Please, both of you, Lure you as well, or I’m going to bring it up with Thibaut,” said Sinistra, a brunette, whose shoulder-length hair was streaming in the air, graceful like the tail feathers of a flying wren.

Ah, Thibaut, few can understand this mysterious Belgian, less can survive him if he gets serious. Of course, like Lure, he wasn’t a permanent member of this group of villains, but a dear companion for hazardous ventures. If he was pleased by his company, that is. Else… Stories told by his ex-colleagues hint of profuse violence, done in the style of a true gentleman: precise and painless beheading. His first name was his alias too, a curiosity in a business where everyone favoured style to impress their enemies and allies alike.

Lure made a 360° turn, yet couldn’t perceive more than an empty, abandoned warehouse. In some corners, so her panicky mind told her, spiders were weaving nets and devouring their prey. Her rapidly beating heart and her increasingly vivid imagination were telltale signs of her nervousness, her rational mind knew it. She hoped that the heist would start soon, leastwise be it freedom from this stinky baldy. She had no idea, why the Belgian gentleman had asked for this particular location as the operation base. An odd whim? Some crafty schemes? Who knew? She doubted, however, that the man had no plan, especially since the depot was suspiciously situated nearby the target.

Straightening her blonde bob with black coloured hair-ends, she chose to wait patiently and inspect her cheap, black one-shoulder wet look dress while again becoming painfully aware of how much her conservative parents would deplore her clothing choice.

A little sigh escaped from Sinistra after a while, and her body tension relaxed, notably her madly flipping ears stopped. Lure knew her quirk, what her companion did when she was nervous. Sinistra was her friend, after all, seventeen and only one year older than her.

“The other two are ready, Thibaut will arrive shortly.” Lure and Brutus, the baldy, nodded. She continued, “I repeat the plan: you two secure the target, Thibaut provides a means of transportation, Splendor will cast an illusion and I'll supervise everyone while reporting status updates.” One of Sinistra’s gifts was Mindspeak, the ability to communicate with someone via thoughts in the range of about two hundred meters. Splendor was the fifth party member, a mute man with an unorderly black dinner jacket as his villain costume.

“Understood,” said both villains in unison which caused Lure to frown and to look back at the immodestly grinning barbarian, who was gawking, outrageously, at her breasts. Rude, very rude. Blushing, she took a defensive position and crossed her arms whilst protecting her sensible parts from greater harm. One does not simply ogle an innocent maiden or a cute villainess at that.

“Guys…” Sinistra was, so very, not amused. She had that one side. Better not –

Without warning, a man-tall, violet bubble came into existence. First small like a marble, this entity rapidly expanded, until everyone heard a plop sound. Out of the blurry cocoon, a gentleman appeared. Raven hair, a pencil moustache, while dressed in white: a white top hat with a red ribbon and a white elegant coat-like uniform with black buttons. No doubt, this was Thibaut.

Not only Lure, Sinistra too stopped breathing for a moment. Nobody wanted to displease this madman lest one becomes shark food. He didn’t seem to care though, a little smile even hinted at his satisfaction, or so Lure thought. Not minding the consent of his companions, Thibaut warped everyone in different violet, untransparent bubbles, until darkness filled the void.

The following abrupt acceleration took Lure by surprise, and she nearly lost her balance. After a single breath’s time, the darkness faded when sun rays touched her lovely face. She was gifted a magnificent view over the little suburb, intuitively grasping at a tree branch, which she nearly managed to touch. From above the roof, she could see kids playing with two dogs. Wonderful. Brazen must be villains who assault a bank in broad daylight. She turned around, and her companions were recovering from their strange transportation.

The noisiest commented first, “Next time, better warn us.”

A smooth voice answered, “There won’t be a next time.”

Holy shit. This answer has many layers. And he is serious.

Brutus spat on the roof, while demonstratively wrinkling his nose, yet he didn’t dare to argue. Even a foolish dog knows his master, so to speak.

“We’ll start the operation if you're ready,” said the leader.

Sinistra’s villainess costume was just an ordinary black cocktail dress, but she had bought a super chic – and somehow cliché – cape with the outer side in black and the inner side in red. When she had spoken a moment ago, she looked incredibly sexy in Lure’s eyes, and Lure would have complimented her friend if the situation was not so incredibly tense. Villains were not masked; no, they showed with pride who they were. The public and more importantly the police knew the identity of everyone with a Power. This isn’t a comic where nobody recognizes Clark Kent, face recognition software is these days simply too advanced. No, this is reality.

Everyone looked at Lure. She then realized that she was lost too long in thoughts and that her companions were waiting for her. Even Thibaut eyed her which caused her heart to pump even more blood through her arteries and veins.

“I, I'm ready…”

“Good, here we go, Splendor will give the signal.” Splendor had been setting up an illusion dome around the bank, which was located on the other side of the roof with a direct view of the building’s entrance. Thibaut would teleport pedestrians, who by chance intruded into the dome which blocked sounds and smells and fooled the eye.

The unkempt man lifted his hand to signalize the start of the operation. Instantly a violet bubble covered Lure again and moved her to her destination, the bank entrance.

Wasn’t it foolish to become a villain by stealing some million credits? Sinistra had gotten the tip from Thibaut, yet she didn’t question why an A-ranked villain would need an inexperienced party. Now that Lure’s actions couldn’t be changed, willing to make a name for herself, she intended to proceed. It may be Lure’s first heist, but Sinistra had achieved more exploits in her half a year-long career. As her senior, she should know whom to trust.

Brutus wasn’t someone who was dallying all day. Drunk on adrenaline, he charged right into the building, destroying every security door on his way – this was exactly how the plan was not meant to be executed. Hastily Lure followed the baldy, as she had one task to do. A panicky atmosphere greeted them: a child started crying, her mother held her dearly, some people were covered in blood, for glass splinters had become deadly projectiles under Brutus’s furious onslaught, a veteran C-ranked villain.

Without thinking, Lure tried to salvage the plan by using her Power. First, she taped into one aspect of her gifts, Soothe. Her calm voice penetrated the hall and the hearts of those present, suppressing all agitating feelings. No more crying, no tears fell – at least for three seconds, when her effort was ultimately for vain. The crescendo once started again. In desperation she looked at the receptionist; her task was after all to prevent the invisible alarm. She was supposed to concentrate on her passive ability, Suggestion, – which can evolve into the most infamous Mindcontrol – to stall for time and befuddle the mind of the bank workers, then use Soothe to avoid chaos. But everything was for naught.

“Brilliant, such power. It could affect even me,” the receptionist replied. Gears were suddenly working in Lure’s mind and she looked back at the damaged entrance, then at the somewhat less aggressive Brutus, who seemed to have lost most of his working brain since the operation had started. She ran. She was a lot: naive, vain, and sometimes disrespectful, nevertheless not stupid. Yet before she could pass through the doorway to freedom, she knocked her head against an invisible force and fell to the ground, which caused a second shock. Without warning, she hadn’t been prepared and was forced to take the full force of the brunt. Wailing in pain, she touched her bleeding head. She was crying in pain, her head felt like a stomped watermelon.

“Wait, I didn’t intend this! I am so sorry. I didn’t know you’d run,” exclaimed the receptionist, visibly shocked. Apparently, she hadn’t foreseen, that the teenager may run.

“Hahahaha.” Brutus laughed like a maniac. “Bitch, you’re a bloody fool. You thought that everything was under your control, that Splendor was your man?” He paused for a little bit of villain pathos. “No, he isn’t; I have worked with him many times. Thibaut is only here for fun, everyone knows his motives. Or do you think he would sell someone to the superheroes?"

He moved to the bleeding girl and touched one of her strands. “This will be apprentice’s due.” The still perplexed receptionist didn’t know how to react and her mouth was visibly wide open. Brutus pointed at the bank employee and declared, “I Renounce”.

“Madman, madman,” the receptionist whispered, barely hearable. Lure was still hanging on, her feelings of pain were somewhat diluted by the massive amount of adrenaline, which her body was releasing. Lightning and thunder were manifesting outside and the illusion dome was cracked. Renounce was the ultimate trump card of everyone with a Power, skipping one single grade, no matter the circumstances, yet forfeiting any chance to improve further. Brutus went all in for whatever reason.

The receptionist shielded Lure with a dome of dancing fiery flames, harmless to the teenager, though. The hero replied to the madman, “It seems I have to get serious too.” Twenty razor-sharp swords appeared in the air with a lightning crackling sound. Unimpressed Brutus charged forward, accelerating like a muscle car and as stiff, for the lady managed to graciously evade his attack. She moved behind him, shooting her energy swords into his back while he was crashing into the reception. This was not enough. Brutus shouted like a madman and the swords didn’t even manage to penetrate his outer skin layer.

Lure was silently watching the two, waiting for her chance. She did not, however, want to see the defeat of the women, despite their enmities. No, she didn’t trust anyone at this point anymore but had a grudge against that stinky, baldy, madman.

Brutus jumped several meters forward while the hero evaded in the air outside the building, soaring. He picked up some rubble, created by the fight, and threw it towards the nimble lady, who evaded again while counterattacking: Lure’s dome left her and trapped the villain without covering his belly side. Unapologetically, the heroine took her time and targeted the man’s best part. The impact let him bleed and howling in misery. Immediately she cast the dome again on Lure while approaching the madman.

“I am sorry, but her life is more important.”

“You’ll die!” Brutus jumped on the hero; he was now in reach.

Lure whispered, “Seduce.”

For a moment, the confusing looking madman turned his eye away from the hero and beheld the image of a young and sexy teenager. This was too long in such a fast-paced fight. The receptionist took advantage by dodging the man-missile and bombarding him again with energy swords, this time without a break until he stopped standing.

“Fuck you,” was the last thing Lure said, eying Brutus’s broken body before she lost consciousness.