"Don't tell me they've already been sold!? The auction wasn't even due to start yet!"
The security guard rapidly shakes his head. "I mean they're not kept directly on site! We've got the place hooked up to this citywide teleportation network they got from some tech guy a couple of years ago, the uh...the cells could be anywhere in the city for all I know. The Auctioneer is the only one who has access to it!"
Hrmm, well this sounds like a complication! "Who's this Auctioneer? Where are they?"
"T-there!" He nods his head towards one of the monitors, and I notice a glimpse of an older guy in a suit coming out of an office, carrying some bag under his arm. He didn't show up before, so I'm guessing there's no cameras in his personal space. I don't have time to think about it for long though, because it occurs to me that he's probably running for those teleporters at this very moment!
"Where is that!?"
"It's - a right and then a left! Just don't sting me! I'm allergic to bees!"
"Very well, you'll live for today...criminal." I toss him back into his corner and go chasing down the hall. I'm not even sure what I'm running past now - storage areas, more utility spaces, perhaps - but I ignore it all because I can hear the guy's footsteps ahead of me. Before long I catch sight of the man himself, and finally I catch up to him as he's standing in front of some weird sci-fi looking thing, tapping numbers into a console that looks like it came off of a computer from the 1980s.
"Fuck!" The dude spots me and reaches for something in his coat, but 'The Auctioneer' is clearly not a supervillain handle, because the guy goes down pretty easily as I jab him with my stinger. It looks like he didn't manage to finish punching in his command, but I do notice a scrap of paper fluttering in the air from where he lost it. Ignoring the old guy as he crumples to the floor, I snatch it out of the air and take a look.
CELL 1 - CLING - 9978
CELL 2 - OPAL - 4439
CELL 3 - FLINT - 4771
CELL 4 - OPEN - 8339
CELLS 5-9 - OPEN - 7303
AUCTION HOUSE - 1234
Then, lower down on the scrap, I notice one more number:
HOME - 6969
Glancing at the console, I notice the guy had three numbers entered in already - 696. I'm not sure what it is, but something tells me that there's something special about that last number...so while my back is turned to the dude I rip off the bottom portion and stash it in one of my pouches. That done, I turn back to him and wave it around. "What are these names? Are these the people you were going to sell tonight!?"
I have to turn him around a bit so that he can actually see me glaring at him, but he seems to be made of sterner stuff than the other guys. He just sort of sneers at me instead of answering. "I demand a lawyer."
"A lawyer!? We caught you redhanded! Will these codes take us to the prisoners?"
"What codes?" I look up and realize the question came from Redline, who has Silver and Cold Call following after her.
I jerk my thumb in the direction of the device. "Apparently this thing is some sort of teleporter? It looks like each of these codes goes to a different location, some of which are 'in use' right now."
Redline takes a glance at my scrap of paper, then the machine. "Those don't sound like the names of any known missing persons, probably codenames. This could be tricky - there's no telling what we might be teleporting into." She eyes the machine again. "Seems to be big enough for two people at once? What do you say? We pair off and give them a search?"
The question seems to have been directed at Silver, not me. "We'll call it in first, but sounds like a plan. Super Stinger, you're with Redline, Cold Call's with me, the others can keep an eye on things here." He eyes the Auctioneer, still sneering at us. "This guy not going anywhere?"
I shake my head. "Not for like an hour or so, nope!"
"Alright, then. We'll go down the list, I'm taking Cell One. Wait until we comm back before using it, just in case this thing..." He eyes the teleporter a bit uncomfortably. "...Turns out to be unsafe."
We give him some thumbs up, and after we let the others know what we're doing he pops through with Cold Call alongside him. He calls us back within ten seconds, saying he's apparently in some modified, abandoned apartment building somewhere in the city, so Redline and I do the same for Cell Two - which takes us to an old machine shop in the middle of nowhere.
Long story short, we end up spending an hour securing the different locations on the list, which turns out to be more a matter of caution than actual risk. There's no guards at any of these places, just cameras and automated security systems, and a couple of the places are completely empty. Sure enough though we end up finding three captured civilians at the first three locations, all of them with really minor superpowers, and all kidnapped within the past two weeks.
Once we've busted them out of their improvised cells the raid settles down into the long, boring cleanup part. The cops come in along with Marcy and the EMTs, and we start doing proper arrests. Apparently the only real injuries were on the bad guys - bruises from when people fell down or got knocked over, with the worst being a broken tail for Rep-Tail. I am kind of curious about the non-people stuff that was up for auction, just in case any of it was actually interesting, but they end up sealing off those spaces until 'specialists' can come and make sure nothing is dangerous.
It's fairly late in the evening, but eventually Tiptop comes and finds me and Marcy. "Welp, the last of the prisoners has been dragged out, and it seems like everything's been secured. Good work, you two! Both on your work tonight, and bringing this in to us to start with. How'd you like your first raid?"
We try to put smiles on it, but it's hard - and I feel bad about lying to Tiptop for some reason. "To be honest, kind of disappointing? I mean, we didn't get to fight any of the supervillains, and they didn't even pull out some sort of death beam or something to fight us with."
She flashes that blinding smile at us, apparently unoffended. "Disappointing's good! It means things went well. I know that newbies always want the flashy fights and all that, but trust me, spend a couple of years at this and you'll be thankful for every operation that goes as planned. That's how you live long enough to become a vet like the rest of us." She takes a breath before continuing. "Anyhow, grunt work's been done, and it sounds like the media's already packed it in for the night, other than maybe one or two dedicated cape-chasers. You two are free to head out and get some rest if you like - we'll do a full debrief tomorrow afternoon sometime, most likely."
Marcy's about to nod, but I put my hand on her shoulder. "Thanks, but I was thinking of maybe...showing Marcy around a little bit before we left? It's our first secret underground base, I mean - real exciting stuff!"
Tiptop narrows her eyes at me - then breaks out into a grin. "Ah, I see how it is. Feeling all...excited after making a big bust, right? We've all been there!"
Marcy blushes and stammers out a response. "I, uh, I'm not sure what you mean, ma'am."
"Please, Front Man and I have - well, no need to go into the details. If you two want to...take a tour then have fun, just don't go into any of the marked-off areas or mess with the evidence, yeah?"
I quickly nod along! "Absolutely! See you at the debrief tomorrow, ma'am!"
"Sure thing. You two have fun!" She gives us another grin and heads off, although I do hear her muttering as she turns a corner. "Now that I mention it, I hope Redline didn't drag him off first this time..."
That's...kind of interesting, but the more important thing is the confused look Marcy's shooting me. "Did you, uh, actually want to mess around here, Tammy? I mean, I'm up for it, if you want..."
I chuckle as I pull her down towards the other end of the hall. "I like where your head's at, but there's something else I wanted to check out. Keep this quiet, yeah?"
She raises an eyebrow but gives me a nod, and soon enough we're back in the teleporter room. The cops did take pictures of the thing but nothing's been marked off, it sounded like they'll be bringing in some tech expert to look it over before trying to dismantle it or anything - something that could take a couple of days. Hopefully this won't take that long, though!
As I close the door and flip the power back on, I explain things for Marcy. "I found one other address the others don't know about, and I wanted to check it out myself. If it's worthless, we'll hand it over and just say we found the info brushed under some of the furniture or something. If it's useful...well, who knows what we might find?" I give Marcy a grin, and she smiles back.
"Well, I'm sure there's nothing that the two of us can't handle together. Let's try it!"
We step onto the platform, and I finish punching in the code. I've done this a couple of times already tonight, so I'm used to the effects, but it's definitely not as smooth of a ride as Darkhive teleportation. It's not too bad though, and maybe ten seconds later we're standing on an identical platform...somewhere else. There's no windows, but the dark-stained wooden walls and fancy lighting tell me that this is someplace a bit more expensive than the concrete bunker we just left, let alone the prisoner cells.
There's a pair of wide double doors standing opposite us, and before we have much time to explore the room they swing open. We find ourselves greeted by a pale-skinned woman with straight bangs and black hair framing her face, and more importantly - a maid uniform. Annnd judging by how short the skirt is, this seems like the kind of uniform you order online, not the kind you'd find on an actual professional maid...not that I'm an expert.
We're both taken a bit by surprise, but the emotion on the maid's face mostly seems to be...relief? She ends up speaking up first. "Oh, thank fuck, you're not the old geezer." She eyes me up and down, and there's a twitch in her lips that tells me she likes what she sees. "I got bought by some supervillain girl then, huh? Well...not too bad. At least you're hot."
Marcy blinks. "I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Ah, my apologies." She gives us a curtsy, showing off a lot of bare thigh in the process, although there's something sort of mocking about the movement. "Maid Black, at your service." She eyes us both again as she straightens back up, me in particular, and bites her lip before speaking again. "And speaking of...just how may I serve you?"
Well! I'm not sure what we found here, but I'm thinking I'm not going to be reporting this to Liberty Stars...