“We had a good run.”

Lazy, afternoon light streamed through the window of the hideout. The light filtered through the dust, washing the entire room in a sepia tone. Roux was stretched out along the windowsill, soaking in as much sun as she could. The black sequins on her dress shimmered like the scales of an iridescent fish, utterly out of place from the grime of the dilapidated warehouse they called home. She yawned and kicked out her legs, red high heels nearly knocking over that decorative vase she had to get last year.

“We had a good run,” Jayden was saying. An unlit cigarette dangled from her lips. Her hands were busy dealing a set of cards, and everyone in the room was ignoring how shaky the left one was beneath the brace. “We had two good years, and now we’re old and unoriginal. It might be time to call it quits.”

Roux peeked at her cards then threw them face-up on the table in disgust. “I fold.”

“You don’t – You can’t just show us your cards!” Jayden fumed. “It messes up the statistics and the card counting and the – and the statistics! And the rules! What about the rules?”

“To heck with the rules,” Brandy said, and picked up Roux’s cards. Despite – or maybe because of – Jayden’s sputtering, she mixed her four cards together and teleported two cards back onto the table.

Jayden snatched them up. “These are different!”

“They are?”

Jayden let out a groan from the depths of her soul. “Fine. I call.”

Airin, who hasn’t said anything at all since they started playing, pushed all her chips to the center of the table.

“GODS DAMN IT!” Jayden shouted as she slammed her cards down on the table. “I fold.” She drummed her fingers on the table angrily as Brandy burst out in laughter.

Airin grinned deviously and hugged all the chips. “I am done playing,” she declared, hands just below the speed of a blur.

“But I’m not wrong, right?” Jayden asked, leaning forward. “We can’t keep going like this. We can’t be career villains.”

“Why not? We do it well,” Brandy said, leaning back. She gestured with her arm. “Everything you see here is our kingdom. Why give it up?”

Jayden sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “I don’t know. I just... I want to do something more. We have the money now to do something more. I can’t just scream at people for a living.”

“Speak for yourself. You have the easy job. I have to teleport things everywhere, all the time,” Brandy said.

“All you have to do is look!”

“Ah, but have you considered how bad my eyesight is?”

Two shadow hands slapped them. They both glared at Roux, who was happily eating a cracker she still wasn’t quite sure was edible. “Darlings, be quiet,” she sighed. “You know how I get when you two start fighting.”

Jayden’s face had the shape and colouration of a tomato.

Airin raised a hand. “Roux,” she signed, drawing out the namesign, “I am not sure how to tell you this, but… that is one of Zoe’s dog treats.”

Roux looked down at the cracker in her hand. “You never feed me enough,” she said pointedly as she kept eating the cracker.

“We’re not - can we just - can we stay on topic? I want to retire,” Jayden said.

The universe was not cooperating with her, because Zoe, the hulking German Shepherd that she was, decided to hop on Jayden’s face and knock her to the ground. The tiny girl, who had grown no larger in two years, tried to no avail to wriggle herself out from under Zoe’s considerable mass.

“Jayden’s right,” Airin signed.

“Woof,” Zoe agreed.

Airin shrugged. “I feel like this ‘Robin Hood’ routine is getting old.”

“I, for one,” mentioned Roux, “would love a part where I can stand around and look pretty. Right now I just stand around.”

“Yeah, but we’re on top of the world! Queens of the trade! Kings of thieves!” Brandy said, spinning around in the swivel chair she just had to get last year.

“We’re sitting in a literal underground warehouse.”

“Jayden, must you ruin everything?”

“Brandy, must you be so stubborn?”

Roux slapped them.

Jayden stood up, wobbling the table. Airin’s impressive piles of chips spilled onto the ground. Jayden’s mouth was set in a grim line. “I, uh,” she cleared her throat, “well, Jayden Mach got accepted to Stanford University.”

No one dropped a pin.

“Woof,” Zoe barked, breaking the silence.

“Isn't Strandfort the one with the thingies and the wrench thing?” Roux asked, trying really hard to make the connection but also not at all.

Jayden had a crooked smile. “Stanford is the one for, um, engineering. Clockwork, machinery, that sort of stuff.”

“And you want to go?” Brandy laughed. “Go to school on the surface? Be like every other clueless pigeon wandering the streets?”

“...Yes?”

“Again, I agree with Jayden, about retiring,” Airin insisted. She turned to Jayden. “Stanford is a great school. I am proud of you.”

Jayden gestured at Airin. “See? Why can't you just be supportive like her?”

“Because you want to throw away everything you've ever worked for!” Brandy yelled. Her chair crashed into the table and spilled the rest of the chips. Roux raised a warning shadow hand. Brandy didn't care. “Do the last two years mean nothing to you? Does Airin need to run us out of another standoff? How many times does Roux need to save you from falling off a building? If you leave, we won't be there to catch you,” she warned.

“I'm still leaving,” Jayden said. “I tried to make you see reason, but obviously you won't.”

“Hold on, hold on,” Roux said as she finally got to her feet. “Let's talk about this.”

“What's there to talk about?” Jayden asked. “We have the fortune, the reputation, and all the fun we’ve wanted for two years.” Her voice was rising faster and faster, slipping into her Announcer voice. “We have a legacy. We’ve won all we could. And now we should quit while we’re ahead.”

Roux finished interpreting. Airin nodded. She turned her cards face-up – pair aces. “Quit while we’re ahead.”

Roux shrugged. “Know when to call it a night.”

Brandy looked desperately at Zoe, as if she might offer a different opinion. She saw nothing but literal puppy dog eyes. “Fine! Whatever!” she yelled, grabbing a wad of cash from the cookie jar beside the door. “It's your team anyways!” She glared at everyone in the room, looking them each in the eye. She wanted to remember their faces, right now, in this moment. “See if I care,” she said, and slammed the door so hard the frame cracked.