I stood at the periphery of the only street lamp on the road, checking the place out. It was already closed by the looks of it, with no movement anywhere save for a single night guard sitting in his office off to the side. Well, this was going to be fun.

I stopped time and approached the fence, with a hop I was on the other side. A short walk led me to the first warehouse where I was stopped by a closed door, it had a lock on it. Whelp, I didn’t get very far.

Looking around for a possible entry point I spied a window off to the side, maybe I could catch a glimpse of the inside of the place so I could teleport in to it. Only problem was the warehouse was completely dark so I couldn’t really see inside, so I had to get my phone out and try to use it as a flashlight, oh right I had to start time again. I did so and flashed my torch around the place, I didn’t see much, just a dark space and a few boxes but it would have to do. I hopped over to the other side of the wall only to start gagging at the amount of dust I disturbed, the place hasn’t been cleaned for a long time by the looks of it.

I shined my torch light around looking over the boxes, I opened one to find cleaning products in it. That reminds me that finding anything will definitely be a problem, I should try to find a clipboard that details what’s inside the warehouse and where. After that I went through the other boxes but found nothing interesting, I looked at the door out of this place, surprisingly it was open so I wasted no more time and went into the warehouse proper.

Rows upon rows of boxes dominated the space, with the scant light my torch provided I could just make out the tops of the columns reaching up all the way to the roof, it was as if I just stepped into a labyrinth. I walked towards the first row but found nothing that I could use to identify what was in the damn thing besides a serial number, shrugging I tore it open with a utility knife I brought along thanks to my tremendous foresight. Much to my chagrin there was nothing in it except hairspray products, I went over the next box and found a bunch of hairdryers, the next one had combs. What the hell, was I in some kind of beauty salon’s personal stash? Giving up I started searching for something that would help me search through this place easier. Panels, signs, mountain trail symbols, how the guys who worked here manage to find anything was beyond me.

Just as I was about to give up I spotted a room on the side of the wall connected to a hanging platform and stairs, jackpot. With a hop I was right in front of the door, this one was closed again. Fortunately I saw there were windows on the side of the iron cubicle, unfortunately I couldn’t see inside it from this angle, and it looked like I would only be able to see it If I were on one of the boxes, let’s hope I don’t fall. With another hop I was on a stack of boxes which were precariously high. Alright Norman, I thought to myself, just turn around, look inside the room and jump. Easy thing to say brain, but harder to do, I whined back.

Ever so slowly I turned around, careful of my balance, but just in the last moment I lost my footing. Panicking I jumped a bit haphazardly, causing me to land on the desk of the office rather than the floor, making the papers fly around like angry bees who’s hive I had just disturbed. Not to worry, I thought to myself, I was still alive, nothing was broken and I had a lead. Scrambling up I looked around the room, Sparse would have been a generous term to put it, the place had a desk, a cabinet and a computer. Oh and a bunch of paper I threw on the floor. I picked up the pages and tried them to read it but I got bored really quickly, something about discrepancies of the net gain of the total percentage of my grandma’s ball sack.

Then I turned to the computer, hopefully this would work. I rubbed my hands in anticipation as I booted it up, I knew what I was doing was technically illegal but no one would be able to find out anyway, besides it wasn’t like I was harming anyone. I nodded to myself as I turned back to the pc, it read ‘please enter password’ well shit, unless someone miraculously hid a slip of paper under the monitor I was not getting in there.

I was rooting through the cabinet when I heard the rumble of engines. They seemed to come around the compound and stop just under where I was. Suddenly a great rumbling filled the warehouse as a giant garage door started to open.

“Alright boys spread out, the fucker’s got to be around here.” A voice came bellow me.

In most cases I wasn’t a brave person or as I liked to call it, a dumb person. But something about being a cool, edgy superhero recently has fired up a hidden hormone cache inside my brain, something I thought had long expired, choosing me to not immediately teleport out of the situation. Instead I hopped over to the crates I jumped in from and surveyed my situation from there.

There were about twenty of them, carrying pistols and snapbacks. They looked like a bunch of hoodlums, with their boss, or who assumed was their boss by the number of gold chains around his neck, carrying a slightly larger, more menacing gun. From up here they looked like a bunch of idiots with dangerous toys.

“Donn, you come with me to check the stash. As for the rest of you, if you see him, don’t kill him, we wanna know how he knew to come here.” Goldie said.

Well, well, well, what do we have here? A stash? Looks like I just happened to come to the exact place someone hid their drugs. Wasn’t that a happy little accident?

I followed the alpha fuckboy by hopping from crate to crate. Now that I looked at him, I noticed that both Goldie and Don had the insignia of a snake printed on the back of their shirts. Gee, uniforms? I bet they call themselves the Cobras or some bullshit like that.

They walked to the back of the warehouse to a row of boxes the same as any other. Opening up one of them they took out some white packages and examined them. I grinned in satisfaction as I stopped time before hopping down to the ground, wait, I’ve never actually stopped time of other people except that one time. So I stopped moving for a couple of seconds to wait for any movement, none came, they stood as solid as rocks.

Still a bit wary I shuffled closer to them, they were ugly to say the least. Missing teeth, scars, shaved eyebrows, you name it they had it.

The package they held was clearly cocaine, or some other drug. I never really had any and didn’t want to become an addict now so I started searching the other boxes around them. I found two boxes of snort powder, a box of guns and a box of ammo. I whistled, quite impressive. But now what? I didn’t want any of it, should I just alert the cops? Why? I don’t care whether they have this stuff or not and I can’t take pictures cause my phone doesn’t work when I stop time.

Shrugging I started searching the goons’ pockets finding about fifty Quarks worth. I went around the other goons and collected another two hundred Quarks, as well as a shiv, and some really cool sunglasses. Then I hopped back up onto the boxes and restarted time.

They both blinked, looking at each other.

“Did you feel something?” Goldie asked.

“Yes boss.” Donn replied.

They hurriedly searched their pockets but found nothing missing, I put their wallets back of course, which they didn’t check.

I was smiling in satisfaction above them when my phone rang.

They both glanced up and for a perfect second our eyes locked, me grinning smugly and them with stupefied expressions on their faces. Then they snapped out of it.

“Oi, you little shit!” Goldie cried, how original.

But I was already gone, by the time they raised their guns I was already laying on my bed staring up at the ceiling.

Oh I was a very happy boy now. Not only did I have a lot of money now, I have super powers that make me feel like a badass, this was great. I was still giggling to myself when I remembered my phone ringing, it was my mum.

“Hey mum.” I said.

“Norman? Where are you? It’s getting dark outside.” She said.

Whoops, didn’t think about that, I should have said something earlier. “I’m already upstairs, I came home at four.”

“Oh… Alright then.” With that she hung up.

I grinned, life was going to get real good, I could just feel it.