The Hidden Number (008) | F. Hargreeves

Blast From the Past

Heyo! New chap out rn (obviously cause I'm typing on it—I'll stop now). Hope you like!

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Man these people are fucking stupid, Max thought to himself as he heard the ruckus going on in the other room. He and his siblings had just arrived to their first mission; a stick-up at a major city bank. The objective was simple: defeat robbers, free the hostages. Seemingly easier said than done to a normal person, as there were many hostages held in numerous places, and a decent amount of robbers too—but the Hargreeves children were not regular children; they had abilities—and, additionally, were pumped up with excitement for their first mission so they had a pungent air of confidence to them. They could handle this, easy.

Plus, Max's task was even simpler; all he had to do was cover the exits and prevent any bad guys from getting away—and while yes, the building was huge, Max could shapeshift. It was easy for him to get to base to base and walk around in different bodies to remain incognito.

But none of the bad guys were trying to escape—in fact, they just seemed incredibly confused as to why there were kids with masks walking around the place. So, although Max was bored in his trash can form, it did give him sometime to reflect to himself which led to the realization that holy fuck, were these imbeciles ever so stupid.

These idiots were definitely not professionals—Max could tell. First off, they hadn't even disabled the security cameras (which irked both Max and his father since Max would have to be extra careful with keeping his shifting out of the cameras and his timing too), and secondly, they hadn't even bothered tying the hostages up properly—they just shoved guns in their faces to keep them from moving. Also, they clearly weren't knowledgeable in the bank either, which was painfully obvious by the way the dolts were walking around like the dumb fucks they were trying to find money anywhere they could see it. Max had not a singular doubt in his mind that they'd just simply stormed in here and started pointing guns at people and yelling random words.

Seriously, even he, as a thirteen year old, could plan a better heist; within minutes, too.

Max sighed idly, although he watched with amusement as Luther threw a guy across the room. Ha. That was funny....

"I'm gonna see if there's any more of these little freaks around here!" A voice yelled, clearly coming in his direction. Max let out a breath of relief. Finally, some action.

Smirking to himself, he mentally clarified that he was in a no-camera zone, before shifting into a plant and waiting patiently.

The robber that had spoken was holding his gun carefully, taking small and slow (painfully slow) steps across the room as he kept his eyes open—well, not open enough; Max shifted out of his plant form and then directly into one of the people he'd seen on the street earlier. He tapped the man on the shoulder, who immediately pointed his gun and fired.

......he then widened his eyes in horror as Max shifted the part of his forehead he'd aimed at from steel back into the brown flesh of the man he was imitating.

Beside his feet, the bullet fired clinked faintly on the ground.

"Y'know, it's not very polite to shoot a guy in the head when you first meet 'em," Max informed him simply. The robber in front of him continued to look like he'd just witnessed an exorcism. Max just sighed and shrugged plainly. "Whatever," he muttered before jabbing his fingers into the man's pressure point on his neck, knocking him out instantly.

Max watched with idle interest as the dude crumpled to the floor. Well, that was a lot less fun than he'd anticipated.

"Hey, Hawk! We're ya go, man?" A voice called out, and Max scrunched his nose up. 'Hawk'? That was a codename, right? He hoped it was—but even then, what a cliche codename.