Escape

The back of an armored car is never comfortable. It was even less comfortable when you were being transported as a prisoner. Brick and Wilde were in the back of one such vehicle, their destination was Tartarus Prison, Brick considered the pair very lucky that they had both woken up before they got there because breaking out during transport was simple compared to the nigh-impossible task of breaking out of Tartarus. For once Brick was thankful he was deaf because if the look on Wilde's face was any indication, the two guards who were in the back watching them were jackasses. Unfortunately there were no windows anywhere so he had to concentrate and try to remember the street layout of the city. He felt a bump in the road and hoped his timing was correct. He gave a slight nod to Wilde and braced himself.

Wilde went stiff and then started seizing and fell on the guard. The guards jumped in surprise and went started shouting but Wilde fell to the floor, a little bit of spit coming out of her mouth, she was really selling it. Wilde bucked and her gauntleted hands flew up and Brick quickly turned and the diamond tipped claws scored the super strength resistant cuffs, weakening them enough from Brick to break them. He turned and punched a guard in the stomach and put him in a choke hold until he stopped moving. The second guard drew his sidearm but Wilde sprung up and ran him into the wall.

Brick took the keys off of the knocked out guard and undid Wilde's cuffs. While she held off the guard, he threw his weight against the door once, twice, and on the third time broke the latch and was rewarded with the sight of a red Honda behind them. The armored car screeched to a halt and the pair of mercenaries jumped out and Brick breathed a sigh of relief as he took off a telepathy dampening device, they were on top of Seraphim Gate Bridge.

"Wilde let's go!" He shouted as a guard tried to taze her. She dodged and tacked the guard and was about to punch him but Brick stopped her. "No! We don't need that kind of heat on us!" He said and his partner nodded. They ran to the edge of the bridge and jumped off, falling into the bay below. The fall was much, much higher than Brick originally guessed and realized that while he would survive because of his super durable skin, Wilde wouldn't. He quickly moved closer to her and grabbed her, they were dangerously close to the water now and he turned so he would hit first and tried to fly. It was an ability he had but barely used because he was pretty bad at it. He felt them slow a little before hitting the water and becoming lost in a rush of black and bubbles.

He and Wilde floated, suspended in the deep water for a moment before the rush of bubbles told them which way was up. They surfaced for a moment, catching their breath and went under again, swimming not directly towards shore, but out to the ocean and then towards shore. Once they were back on dry land, or at least land, they paused to catch their breath and see if there was anybody pursuing them, there was no one. Brick let out a chuckle. "That sure beats the hell out of Taiwan."

"Yeah, Taiwan sucked." Wilde agreed. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, near the Olympus Harbor maybe." Brick replied.

"No, what city are we in?" Wilde asked and Brick felt his stomach sink.

"Angel Falls, we had a job here remember?"

"Um, yeah, that's why we had to jump." She said with a smile.

"Good job, now let's get back to the safe house before anyone finds us." Brick said,
saddened at his partner's memory loss.

They made their way through the city after stealing a car and stashing their weapons in the back seat. They made their way back towards the downtown area by tacking the scenic route, avoiding any law enforcement in case they were thoroughly searching the area around the bridge. It was slow but worth it, jumping off of a bridge only worked once and even though they left the guards alive, it was possible they would want blood.

The safe house was a nondescript house in a suburban neighborhood that Brick had set up several years ago. Even though this was the pair's first job in Angel Falls, he felt it would be a good idea to have a safe house just in case. He had tried to keep them out of meta-human affairs because superheroes had a tight-knit community and a job went wrong and the wrong person got hurt, it would bring down an unholy firestorm on their head; but the money for Shatter and Monarch was too good to pass up fifteen million for a simple grab with three million guaranteed, it was simply unheard of. Hell, there were contracts to kill people for less than fifteen million.

Brick pulled the car into the garage and they unloaded their gear. When they entered the house there was a man in the kitchen wearing a black suit and sunglasses. Brick and Wilde both drew pistols on the stranger. "You failed." He stated.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" Brick growled. It had taken some getting used to but now he was an expert at matching his facial expressions to his telepathy, with the scar running across his head, it was an intimidating look.

"Now, mow, there is no need for violence." The man said calmly. "I represent the people who paid you all of that money to capture those two people and now that you have failed, our mutual friend wonders if you are not the right people for the job."

"Well no one told us that one is a highly trained operative, in fact she could be one of us. Given this new information, that out "mutual friend" failed to provide us, the time table is much longer than originally anticipated." Brick replied in a more businesslike but no less angry tone.

"Well then you best get working on that."

"Listen punk, if you want it done right, it is going to be on our time because I don't see you out here risking life, limb, and freedom to catch them so kindly fuck off." Brick said and motioned to the door.

"We'll be in touch." The man said and left.

"That was weird." Wilde said. "I am going to go shower and work on my gauntlets, I have an idea I want to try out." Brick nodded as she walked off. He sat down at the computer and started researching Shatter and Monarch for the next time they met.