Announcer felt the vibrations in the ground. It was a low wave, but a frequency all the same. She must’ve looked bizarre, stopped mid-sentence, head tilted at an angle just wide enough to be odd. No one dared voice an opinion, of course. You don’t question the girl holding the entire watchman cavalry hostage.

“Great news, everybody!” She turned back to the crowd. “We’re in the vault now! I’d tell you how, but, well, even no-good dirty crooks like us have some secrets we want to keep.

“I think I’ve kept you all here long enough. Tsk. I wonder what I could possibly do to make that up to you.”

She smiled, and, glancing back at her nonexistent watch, snapped her fingers.

Money rained from the sky. Crisp bills that definitely weren’t there a second ago were definitely there now, and were fluttering down towards the ground. It would be unreasonable to assume people wouldn’t go hog-wild and fight for the bills, so of course they did. The street was suddenly full of noise and chaos as people all but trampled the restrained watchmen to get at the money.

From the shadows, Heartbreaker’s manicured hands asked Announcer whether she needed cue cards. She shook her head. It was her first heist, and she was going to do it properly, and proper villains don’t need cue cards. “On the second of January last year, the Bank of Singe defrauded over 17,000 clients,” Announcer shouted over the noise. “Thousands lost their homes, their savings, and many others their lives.” Heartbreaker smirked and parted the shadows for Announcer. The next phase had begun.

Delinquent wasn’t only teleporting bills into the sky. The skylight, however see-through it was, made her crane her neck in a super uncomfortable position. Most of the bills were just lying in a pile outside the hole in the vault wall. Soon, an army of shadow monsters would be by to cart the bills away, but that’s not her problem. She’s just gotta get the bills out of the vault. A pair of lockpicks flashed over her fingers, and another safe opened. She thrust her hand into the middle of a pile of cash, trained her eye on the pinhole in the wall, and blinked. The bills were outside now, lying with their siblings in a jumbled heap on the ground. Delinquent put two drops of eyedrops in her eyes, blinked, and moved on to the next safe.

“The people gathered for a protest, a peaceful one, in this very spot, standing right where you are right now. But what did they get? The watchmen – whose job is to protect and serve – executed them all. Right there in the street.”

The monsters let go of the watchmen, and all were up within seconds with the intention to detain Announcer. Colourist’s spray cans were faster. Being blinded by graffiti paint wasn’t the most fun thing to be, and having clown makeup stenciled on their faces would be hilarious if it wasn’t so apropos.

Some people had stopped and started listening despite the flying money, but Announcer had gone silent. She trained her steely gaze on the crowd until even the rowdiest child stilled.

“I’m not saying we’re the good guys,” she said, her voice soft, “but we’re righting a wrong. Maybe those watchmen, the ones here today, weren’t there personally. Maybe this money, the bills in your hands, weren’t the bills stolen by the bank. But they’re here despite all the horrors done to us, the people, on that day.”

She hopped down from the roof via shadow again and stood among the stunned people in the street. “My friend would tell you to remember the legend of Robin Hood, but I’d like to think we’re making a new legacy today.”

She put her arms around two random strangers and smiled. “Because all we’re doing is stealing from a better class of sucker.”

As if on cue, the shadows rose and picked her up. She waved, took a bow, and shouted, “good night, everyone! Thank you for being such a wonderful audience!”

Suddenly, she stopped and snapped her fingers. “Oh! You know what? We forgot to introduce ourselves!” Behind her on the rising podium, a woman in a midnight gown stepped delicately out of the shadows. A slip of a girl sped to her right, and another appeared to her left and curtsied with a denim skirt. Announcer raised an hand in a two-finger salute.

“We are Team Underground, and we’re not going anywhere!”

And just like that, the shadows swallowed them up, and they were gone.