After School Villains Club (2)

Bear Hunt

Claire Lutre

Manhunter came down a second later, Penny had ducked inside the building and would be changing out her costume. Ray and I had selected this rendezvous point earlier and two helpful Patsies should have been lurking close by. Flicking the release catch I dropped two floors, used the gloves to catch the glass, dropped again to a third floor balcony and, to the surprise of a very confused couple, I walked straight through somebody's living room, out their front door and to the elevator.

As expected a familiar face greeted me. Not Ray, but a girl wearing a long dark filly dress and pigtails. The giant teddy-bear she carried didn't match the style of her costume; it was almost as big as she was and shared my villain colour-scheme. Tossing a backpack at me she smiled wryly, "You're late. Project Bear Hunt is underway!"

As the elevator door closed, I proceeded to quick-change to normal clothing.

Penny met us downstairs, we didn't wait around for Ray, this whole thing was conditional upon timing. We got nearly half a block away at a fast walk before the Martian Man-hunter landed on the pavement beside us, hands on hips.

We stared, this was really crossing the line, she'd just approached us out of costume. She looked cross.

"Oh, ah. Hello Miss Martian Man-hunter!" Penny fudged, "What can we do for you today?"

The trained hero stifled a laugh, then pointed at Penny angrily; "These quick change acts flirt the edges of the truce. You're still technically on the job so you should technically be in costume!" She demanded, taking the giant teddy from our companion. "Let me guess, you hid what you took here?" her hand passed through the cloth and she felt around inside the bear, then turned back with a confused expression.

"What, did, where?"

Penny beamed while in the background I clung to my patsy's arm and turned up the Please Don't Notice us effect, we slowly stepped back, taking back the Bear as we did so.

"Well I guess that confirms the league knows who we are!" Penny sighed, she scratched her head, "I assume we are still protected by the truce?"

The hero nodded, cautiously. "Only myself and Wonder Woman know at this time, but seriously what did you do Miss Penny!"

The responding "Mwa ha ha!" that Penny had been working to perfect signalled our success as we ran off. "My friends and I have actually finished work for today. At this moment dozens of identical bears have been handed off. Some to Patsies, some to regular kids. We sold them cheaply from a stall! One of them, no clue which, has the Orb and after multiple hand-offs of random bears, my prize will conveniently find its way back to me!"

I imagined M'Gann facepalming at our ridiculous plan! All true of course, you couldn't lie to her! I'd done my research and confirmed as much! As we passed through the streets, kids for a few dozen city blocks all moved about doing everyday things like shopping and visiting cafe's as we passed. Dozens of identical bears accompanied them. In fact, 62. I'd made sure of the count and the number, although only a couple of dozen were held by patsies.

Running to my first stop I ran into a thin orange haired girl with a bear, we swapped bears, I felt the weight then I headed off. My patsy went off on her own errands. I schooled my mind the best I could, M'Gann could read minds but if all I focused on was the exact same pattern of, be here by X time, exchange bears, head to place Y, then I would sound no different than my patsies. I window shopped while I worked. There was a lot to see.

After an hour and two trades, when first Ray turned up, his keeping pace with me and taking the bear I held filled me with confidence. We made an additional hand-off, then Penny met up with us. I breathed a sigh of relief, she'd been allowed to leave.

The Flash was zipping around the area constantly, no doubt trying to check every bear but by this point it was too late.

Over the next three hours I made several more hand-offs, they were all for show. The prize had already been stowed somewhere safe. Taking my current bear we made our way back to the Hopper, still in normal clothes. The bear I currently held was fake as well. While Ray crank-started the hopper, Penny got out her phone and checked the co-ordinates with a calculator.

A second later we'd hopped, blinking as soon as the mechanical grasshopper left the ground and appearing real high over the city. Allowing the hopper to slow in its arc, start falling - Penny Blinked again and we hit the ground on the other side of the city, far from where we'd started.

I pulled out my phone, getting the drop off point from my messages. This was the last part of the plan. Donning my bear feet and gloves, I skated out into the streets and down the road, pushing hard with my powers to be unnoticed. Reaching a large post-office box on the side of the road, I opened it to find a large bear tucked inside. This time as I traded bears the replacement was heavy, a giant chunk of alien technology tucked neatly inside in a large sack. Taking the bear back to the hopper, I was not accosted by super-heroes.

We'd won!