The good, the bad, and the high heels

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Darcy hissed, crouched beside me.

"Nope. Hand me that lock pick."

I take the lock pick and insert it into the electronic store's lock, twisting it ever so slightly.

"And...we are in! Jane, Betty, grab the transmitters. Natasha, give me that laptop right there. Darcy, go raid the electronic tape."

The girls scurry around the store as I join Betty and Jane in the center where they are assembling the device.

"So the object here is to heat up the ions in the air between rings A and B," I gesture towards the makeshift blueprints I had drawn on the back of someone's paperwork, "which will release a beam of supercharged particles straight towards the force field."

"Right." Betty nods. "And then a signal will be open for about two and a half minutes."

"In which time," Jane cuts in, "you need to be able to send a message to a satellite, which will hopefully deflect it to the intended recipient back in New York."

I nod and open the laptop, perching on a counter as Jane and Betty build the machine, offering m help as needed.

Twenty minutes later, I slide out from under the monstrosity Darcy has dubbed the 'Force field hole puncher' and check on the laptop.

"Coding is a go."

"Ring A is a go."

"So is a Ring B."

"The particle heater is ready."

"Natasha, are you and Darcy secure?"

"Yes." Natasha's voice rings out from under the cashier's desk.

"Is this going blow up?"

"Yes, Darcy, did you expect much else?"

"Oh. Um, no, now that I think about it."

"Political science majors, everybody." Jane says sarcastically.

"See, this is why I did mechanical engineering." I mutter.

"Alright, are all systems a go?"

"Affirmative."

"Commencing in three....two...one!"

Jane slams her hand down onto a button in her hand and she and Betty scramble back as the air around the device gets hotter and hotter.

The rings at the top glow with a red-orange heat and a low hum fills the air as the glow changes to blue, not unlike the Tesseract, and the humming turns into a deafening shriek as the two rings' light combines with a whoosh and a beam of light shoots through the ceiling.

"Taylor, now!"

My fingers fly over the keys as I type in the code.

Code_type_=message /send

Code_ send /to: [AE_5tARk]

"Two minutes!"

<MESSAGE>=break

S0S-HELP!

Unit: females _danger _animals; _send: help_ ASAP/

5X5 mi _sig _block/EMP

"One minute, Taylor!"

_ break- </MESSAGE>

Action: [send_ now]

_confirmed: true_

"Thirty seconds!"

[Send _status= wait]

"Twenty! Hurry!"

[Send _status= true]

"Ten! Get down!"

Someone grabs me and yanks me away from the laptop just as the beam deactivates and the device explodes in a bonfire level of heat.

Once the explosion dies down to leave only the crackling of flames and the smell of burnt plastic and metal, I peer out from behind the shelving unit.

"Is it over?"

"Yeah, Darcy, come on out."

I offer a hand to Jane - most likely the one who tackled me - and help her up.

We rejoin the others in the center area, where we are greeted by a ten-foot wide circle of ash.

Darcy lets out a low whistle as she turns to Jane. "This has to be the craziest mad science spree of all time."

Jane just shrugs.

"Did the signal send?" Betty asks from her crouch a few feet away.

"I hope so." I reply, glancing at the laptop, which was reduced to a pile of melted goo.

"I really, really hope so."

A~A~A

"Clint, quit pacing already!"

"How can I? The girls are out there-"

"Yes, I know, I'm sure they'll be fine."

"How, Steve? Is it a new "power" of yours?"

"Hey! I-"

His remark is cut off by Jarvis's urgent tone.

"Mr. Barton, Capitan Rogers, Sir requests your presence in the lab immediately."

Steve and I share one last glance before bolting for the stairs.

Once in the lab, we are greeted by a bouncing Tony in front of a monitor, shouting something about Taylor being a genius.

"Tony!" Steve shouts. "What is going on?"

"They got through! Taylor got the signal through!"

"What? How?"

"Show the message!"

"Jarvis, you heard Steve, show the class!"

We're all so excited we ignore Stark's snarky remark. All five of us gather around the lit up monitor as the message appears.

[S0S- HELP!

Unit: females_ danger_ animals; _send: help_ ASAP/

5X5mi_sig_block/EMP]

"Um, what?" Steve and I send confused glances towards Bruce and Tony, who are lit up like Christmas trees.

"Taylor told us - in programming code - that the girls are faced with dangerous animals and a signal black that is ten meters in diameter and five miles high. If we fly above five meters - which we most certainly can - we (and by we I mean everyone but me) can drop in and save the day."

"Why not you, Tony?"

"Taylor also told us the block was an EMP. EMPs mess up my suit and reactor like you wouldn't believe."

Steve nods and begins to pace the room. "So we can just fly the plane in and swoop down and save the day?"

Tony nods.

Then a thought come to mind. "What will the girls think of that?"

Tony rolls his eyes. "Who cares right now? Not me. We need to save them and get them out before someone gets hurt."

I nod uneasily.

"Now, Cap, scramble the jet, I will get the weapons, Clint gather the team and be on the roof in ten. We are going to Australia."