Seek {Superhero AU} - Ending 1

32: Creepin' Around

WPOV

Track: bad guy, Billie Eilish

A/N: Yeah, the Billie Eilish again cannot possibly mean good things. Want to make guesses on what will go wrong for them in this chapter? Place your bets! No cheating!

Lou Ellen and Cecil want to help, so we station them at the broken-down park where Nico and I had our first date. From there, they'll be able to keep track of who goes in and out of the building. If police arrive or if the Viper somehow has backup, we'll know about it before they attack.

Nico and I are waiting for the guard in front of the doors to call his girlfriend. That's something we picked up from our days of watching the building—the front guard calls his girlfriend at exactly eleven PM every single night. While he's distracted, Nico and I will sneak inside.

I turn on my phone. It's 10:59. I check my texts from Lou Ellen and Cecil while Nico and I hide behind the trash cans on the side of the building. Nothing yet. We're still safe. I guess I should know that—we haven't even gone inside the building yet.

Nico is tense. He's watching the guard closely around the corner, and he has one hand held up to signal to me to keep waiting.

I check my phone again. The number switches to 11:00, and I look quickly back up at Nico. He's still for one more moment before his "Wait" gesture turns to "Go!"

We fly to the door so that the guard won't hear our footsteps. The guard is staring off to the west as he talks to his girlfriend about how much he wants to quit this job.

"I mean, it's fucking boring," he complains as I punch in the code to the door. "Nothing ever—" He glances over at us, and for a moment, I freeze—but Nico is ready for it. His shadows appear behind the guard and surge at the back of the guard's ear—the guard cries out and falls.

I jolt. I can hear the girlfriend on the other end of the phone, concerned. The guard hits his head on the ground, and he doesn't move. Nico kneels down to take his pulse, ending the guard's call with his girlfriend on his way.

"Shit!" I cry. I feel a bit like I've just witnessed a murder. (Have I?) "Is he—?"

I turn back to the keypad to finish entering the passcode. I press enter.

The light blinks red.

I swallow and try again—did I enter it incorrectly? I punch in the numbers I've had memorized since we moved here—again, the keypad blinks red.

"He's alive," Nico says. "Which means we'll need to lock him up somewhere inside until we're done. Otherwise he'll call for backup. Help me carry him?"

Nico drags the body over to me as if the only difficult thing about what just happened is that the body is heavy. That blow could have killed someone—I mean, the guard fell on concrete. If he'd have hit his head a little harder—

Oh, God. Maybe Nico is a supervillain. What am I supposed to do about that?

"They've changed the password," I tell Nico, tearing my gaze away from the unconscious guard and back to the mocking keypad. "I tried the code my mother taught me—twice. It didn't work."

"Break it, then," Nico suggests, still holding onto the guard's limp body.

That's not legal. If I get caught for this...

I use my light to fry the wiring of the panel. I hear a spark, and then some whirring—and then the door's lock clicks open.

Setting aside my morals for now, I grab the guard's feet while Nico keeps his arms hooked under the guard's armpits. Together, we carry him inside, leaving his phone behind. Inside, we take him as far as the lobby before finding a custodian's closet to lock him in. I help Nico put him inside, and Nico uses the secretary's chair to jam the door shut.