Sidelined

Chapter 3

A/N: This part was requested as part of my old tumblr's 1.5k followers milestone and was just completed the other day hence why I'm now uploading all three parts onto here

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              Adrenaline coursed through your veins, the sounds of fists connecting with flesh and grunts of pain filling the alleyway. Your breath came out in sharp pants, billowing out in front of you in the cold autumn air. You had never felt more alive than you had in this moment. You danced around the crooks, there one moment and gone the next, flowing around their attacks as if you were made of liquid. Above you, the sky was clear. Stars glittered overhead like specks of crystal.

              "Damn bitch," the one who you assumed was the leader of the group spat, blood hitting the pavement from where your fist had split open his lip. "someone kill her already!"

              You took in your surroundings, watching as the crooks surrounded you in the narrow back alley. You weren't nervous at all; in fact, you were quite the opposite. A smirk made its way onto your lips as you stared down the ringleader through your mask.

              "I wouldn't look so damn smug if I were you, girl." He spat, taking a few steps towards you. "We've got the upper hand now, if you hadn't already noticed 'yer completely surrounded. Ya' might as well give it up, ya' can't take us all down on 'yer own."

              You chuckled low; your smirk widened ever so slightly. "Can't I though?" On cue, several smoke pellets dropped to the ground at your feet from the rooftops, activating on contact with the asphalt and shrouded you from their view. As soon as the smoke concealed you, you jumped into action, taking out legs and arms alike as the crooks stumbled around blinded, coughing through the smoke. They swung with reckless abandon in any direction they believed you were, and you used that to your advantage. Behind you through the smoke, you could hear the others that you weren't focusing on going down. Good. The faster you wrapped this up the better.

              The two of you worked in tandem through the ever-thinning cloud of smoke, flipping and kicking and punching, and everything in between until the last of them fell. Then came your least favorite part: tying them up. This was the one part you couldn't rush, if not done properly they could escape before the authorities arrived. So even though you operated with a small window of time, you forced yourself to work as diligently as you could. Making sure your knots were secure, you were pulled by your ally further back into the alley: time was up.

              You let yourself be led, almost tripping over the uncovered sewer grate in your haste. Just before the smoke cleared and you secured the manhole cover over your head, you could see the tips of two pairs of boots: one yellow and one red. You turned to your ally again as he led you down the twisting maze of sewer tunnels, trying not to breathe in deeper than you wee forced to at the stench that permeated the air. Sewer crawling was high up on your list of things you hated about your job.

              After a good twenty minutes of running through tunnels and making sure your trail was unfollowable, you were brought back to the surface, much to your delight, and back into the (relatively) clean air of Central City. "Cut it a little close didn't you Rob?" You turned to your boyfriend as you slipped into the building next to the two of you. "One more second and they would have caught the two of us."

              "We made it out, didn't we? Besides, it wouldn't have been as close as it was if you didn't toy with them like always." He snapped back, but it didn't hold any real heat to it. You know he always enjoyed the thrill of almost being caught, slipping away at the last moment. The two of you started to go through the motions, taking off your gear and cleaning up. The old warehouse you were set up in definitely screamed "in need of repair" but the lights more or less worked and so did the water if you hit the pipes hard enough. You weren't complaining against your hideout of choice when your only alternative was to go back to the cave, or even worse, your house. Just the thought sent a shiver up your spine and an unpleasant churning of anxiety in your stomach.