Villains Club Training Camp (5)

Time

Raven

At a guess, the woman reading us the riot act had to be Bad Penny's mother. Surprisingly, Penny didn't falter at all. She remained standing until the Audit sat, mirroring her behaviour. Her voice, distorted by some mechanism didn't shake and while, slightly robotic was fitting for her costume.

This was a Riot act. We weren't being shown the property, no kind of tour was involved. We were being warned.

"As villains, by undertaking this mission you will be committing an act of villainy. Your job is to test the security of this facility." The audit stated, matter of fact.

"I fully understand that, our condition of immunity to prosecution is applied only if we fail." Penny mirrored the tone and inclination perfectly, indicating our group, "I assume under contract of truce however that the junior members under my authority will still have their secret identities protected, and that their families be looked after?"

I blinked. Was this a usual mode for penny? Jesse and I had no family, and technically no home. At least not at current. Briar and Quinn had a supportive villain mother! The question was tantamount to "Please don't tell our parents!"

Except that obviously it was for her own safety. If the Audit here tried to out Penny, or remove her helmet she would be in violation?

"Absolutely. Naturally we also expect you to try and succeed. This is not a test unless you genuinely attempt to free at least one individual. You've no doubt been given a list? I believe some of the youths you interact with regularly have parents in our care!" Briar and Quinn flinched at the woman's clipped voice, stating quietly that she knew the stakes.

"Absolutely!"

"I will say I hadn't been expecting your break in to have already started!"

The sparring of words continued in spite of my surprised "What? No it hasn't!"

"If you are referring to my dear child Vera being missing from this group, yes I have her collecting data. You'll find she is somewhere inside the dome, scanning equipment and creating a fully holographic reproduction of everything she sees!" Bad Penny must have been really pleased by this, for a moment her face-plate switched to a pink heart, as our leader insisted, "I hope you fully understand, the conqueror orb known as Vera is considered intelligent, and a child under my care!"

"That is the only reason we didn't destroy it outright!" The big screen behind The Audit, which until now had been displaying a Palmer-Tech logo, switched on. Four men, wearing the guard uniforms were surrounding the little orb, and beams of energy came from devices they wielded to hold Vera in place. Her wings were pulled in, protective around her crystal core and while her eye still moved and viewed the world, sparks and pops of sound were carried through the equipment.

Penny's mask flickered red only for a moment, before returning to the glasses-wearing emoji.

And the Audit noticed.

"You children have all been warned, you know the terms and conditions. We will not be providing you with any information since you already have gathered information." Having been dismissed, the rest of us who had been seated began standing.

Until I had an idea! "If you're excuse us, we'll see ourselves out!" and I grabbed Jesse's hand, getting the hint we both dropped into the space between dimensions.

The red haze of inter dimensional space drifted over the world, literal red-shifting of light from the fact that we were outside of time.

Jesse, stretched, yawning. "Why are we going this way? We'll just have to wait for them outside!"

"Nah, Go pick up Briar and Quinn, we'll vanish and leave an impression!" I informed him, walking around the back of our interviewers. Taking the opportunity I frisked through the mens pockets, and even looked over the Audit's utility belt. Everything on the audit was secured in a way I couldn't access from here. Some of the stuff in Palmer's pockets looked interesting, although no key cards or obvious security stuff was present. I couldn't take the tablet, gripped as it were trying to move his fingers like this would break either the fingers, or the tablet.

While Jesse grabbed the other kids, I dropped back into the real world just long enough to slip a thumb-drive out his pockets, then back into the inter-dimensional space.

Penny was moving! I full on blinked, staring as the girl moved in what should be timeless void, walking casually if stiffly, as though blindfolded. She moved towards Lucifar and, bodily attempted to lift the full-grown woman, fireman carry. She failed and stopped, stationary.

"Oh, she's back in the flow of time!" I mounted the long table, running across it and dropped back into the time-flow beside her.

"Aaah!" Penny declared as I apparently poofed in next to her.

"I have this one!" I told her, she nodded, and apparently Both of us dropped back out of reality.

Again, moving as though on auto-pilot I walked before her, nearly had her bump into me before getting out the girls way, then levitating off the ground I picked Lucyfar up from the underarms and followed our fearless leader.

"Is she even aware that she's physically just walking around, outside the flow of time? Heck, even the speed-force doesn't work like this! How does this blink thing work!" I demanded from the world.

To be fair, even when I or Jesse took people with us through the dimensional wall, they didn't see it the way we did. I did notice that Penny travelled in straight lines, following the halls and doors, walking normally.

While I carried Lucy I did the same, but when Jesse returned, passing through the wall as though not actually solid. I found myself laughing when he demanded "What's taking you so long! I ... Oh my Gods! How is she Doing That!!"