ChromaTober | FMS 2023 writing challenge | Hosted by @LoneRanger253

Day 3 | Sneak

AU: Sabre the Legal Vigilante
Type: Angst? Yes, definitely
Characters: Time (Tokei), Sabre (Spathi), Orange, Nightmare Steve, Plague Steve, random Steves
Note: Might as well use that au here since I appear to be 'a bit' inactive with it - I just have a lot to do ;w; sry 'bout that

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Time Steve POV

It's late, past midnight, and the air was freezing cold already. Winter isn't too far away with the slight aroma of snow in the windy, almost stormy air. I could see my breath as I exhaled, shaking in my hero clothes that weren't yet meant for cold weather.

Sabre has been missing the whole day, no contact or sights of him since yesterday's evening when he wasn't home by his usual time or 3 hours past. Since we're roommates (and work in the same agency), I reported it to our boss, Sir Light, and I started my patrol, searching for any clues to help me out. Orange had started searching for clues at the agency, looking through security cameras and asking around for any sightings of Sabre or suspicious activity.

Sabre had left early from the agency to help out our third roommate and hero partner Orange with gardening and cleaning the seaside.
He then parted way with Orange and got on his way home, but never arrived.

I had gone through all his possible routes back home with a fine comb, but there weren't any signs of a struggle and no items left behind, making it harder for me to start looking anywhere else.

Suddenly, as I was jumping and flying through the icy air, static broke out in my earpiece and a voice stared talking. "Tokei, I've found a hunch. A hidden and now broken security camera at southwest District 7, Green area, there was a group of hooded figures entering the same building with someone limp being dragged with them. The person was covered with a dark blanket, making me unable to identify any of them. The building - thirtieth on Lab Lane, left from sea's view. It's usually rented for parties, but the basement and top floor are another story. Please proceed with caution. Poison and electricity warning." My partner notified while I set my course towards the other side of the Rainbow Kingdom, making it quicker (to outside eyes) by freezing time. I don't want to take any risk when Sabre might not be in a good condition.

Internally, it took me about 10 minutes to get to the suspected location. In reality, 0 seconds of course. The lights in the top 3 floors and few in the middle and one on the first floor were on, eerie white instead of the usual yellowish ones. I was still in frozen time, when suddenly, I felt the winds and cold again. Confused and worried, I checked my watch which let me know how much strain I put on my body while using my powers. It showed that I wasn't using my abilities.

...

Something was up. I knew it was. I hadn't stopped using them, not even thought about doing so. I tried to activate them again, but... Nothing. They didn't work. My concern grew deeply. I was lucky I landed on a rooftop across the street, instead of staying in the air... Otherwise the fall would've hurt quite a lot.

Static grew again in my ears, but it wasn't followed by a familiar voice. Instead, more static glitched in. I frowned and knew better to turn my earpieces offline. They're tracking and hacking, trying to understand who's here. I sighed and prepared to go into the building. Orange would probably debate that retreating and trying to get in touch with the other side would be more advised, but that's not what was my priority. My only goal was to find Sabre and bring him back.

I went to the back of the building and climbed down, making my way around to cross the street where I could use my powers. Luckily the perimeter wasn't that big and I could freeze time to sneakily get across and make my way to the tall building. I unfroze time once I was across.