Seventeen: Busted

*thanks to bullyfanberlin and Andy-man57 for your support!*

***

The wind was brisk on the rooftop of the Holiday Inn. It cut straight through Sage’s black jacket like a dozen papercuts, chilling Sage right down to his soul. Although, admittedly, some of that chill came from Sage’s disappointment in himself for winding up tangled in another of Luis’s stupid plots. But the rage he felt for that same reason was doing a pretty good job of keeping him warm.

This plot was a bit… weirder than the others. Usually, Luis tended to target banks or museums – places that were sure to have a lot of security, but also a payout that was worth the risk.

But for this heist, Luis had chosen to rob a Vice & Venom store, of all places. Vice & Venom was a luxury clothing brand offering items for ‘gothic romantics.’ It was all the kind of shit you’d see in movies like Interview with the Vampire or Sweeney Todd, and for some reason it was insanely popular. Which, certainly, meant it should offer a good payout. If not from the cash in the building itself, then from reselling the merchandise. But it just really wasn’t Luis’s style. Despite Luis’s oddities, he was surprisingly high class when it came to robberies. He only went for the big guys. Sage couldn’t remember them ever going for a retailer before. Not that Sage really cared one way or the other. He just found it strange.

Currently, Sage was keeping an eye on the store, waiting for the lights to go out and the employees inside to leave for the night, which is how he found himself crouching on the roof of the hotel across the street, freezing his balls off. Obviously, they knew when the store was supposed to close, but the closing time listed on the website and the time when all the employees actually went home and left the building empty was unknown, so Sage was waiting for that moment. To distract himself, he inwardly mocked the black, fleur de lis patterned grate over the windows, and the fake brick archway over the door. He was pretty sure this place used to be a Chuck E’ Cheese a few years ago. He wasn’t sure who they were fooling with all the pretty embellishments outside.

Luis was working on how they were going to get into the building without setting off any alarms. He’d managed to pinpoint a back entrance that, while canvassed by cameras, was only locked by a simple deadbolt, and not a keypad with a passcode.

Sage’s job, once Luis had gotten them in, was to keep everything quiet while they grabbed whatever they could, because this store, unfortunately, was part of a strip mall and it not only shared a wall to the right with a diner that was open 24 hours, but the space upstairs was also renovated into a loft that housed the current manager of this particular Vice & Venom store.

Luis wasn’t planning to do anything particularly fancy with the cameras. None of them were actively monitored, so he wasn’t going to worry about them. Their faces were going to be covered anyway, so as long as they didn’t trip any alarms, their theft wouldn’t be noticed until the morning when the store opened back up.

Sage clenched his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering and shuffled in place a bit to keep warm. God damn Luis. God damn this heist, and God damn this fucking cold. Why a fucking Vice & Venom store, of all places? What insanity possessed Luis to choose a fucking fashion retailer?

If he just dragged me into this so he could steal some fucking clothes for himself, I swear to God…

In the midst of cursing Luis out in his head, the lights in the store finally went out, two employees exiting out the front door together and heading down the sidewalk. But Sage knew the manager was still inside somewhere, because he lived above the store – but had he gone up to his loft or was he still hanging around in the back somewhere?

Sage waited for another hour, just to be sure it was completely empty, and he eventually knew for sure that the manager had gone home because a light in the upstairs window came on.

Relieved that he wouldn’t have to roost up here much longer, Sage pulled out his phone and called Luis.

“It’s clear,” Sage said before Luis could greet him, and Luis hummed on the other side.

“Sweet. It’s clear back here too. No alarms on the back door, I don’t think. Just the cameras.”

“And you’re sure they’re not actively monitored?” Sage asked, just to be sure. Luis was actually something of an expert in the types of security systems used by various places, and even Sage knew it was pretty unlikely for them to have an actual security guard watching the cameras at all times, but Luis had been wrong about that kind of thing before and it had led to some…very stressful situations, to say the least.

“No way,” Luis scoffed. “Vice & Venom may be considered a luxury brand, but this store is still part of a crummy strip mall. They don’t have the money for that shit.”

Sage heaved a sigh, still not totally assured. “Alright. I’ll be down in a minute. Stay where you are.”

Thankful to get out of the biting cold wind on the roof, Sage quickly scaled back down to the ground using the service ladder at the back of the hotel and then stuck to the shadows as he made his way across the street. It was dark and there weren’t too many people wandering about right now considering it was a Sunday night and most people were tucked into bed before going to work or school tomorrow morning. However, Sage was still cautious, not wanting to be seen considering he was currently wearing a very obvious mask that would point him out as a villain.

Sage’s Hush disguise was simple, really the bare minimum he needed to keep his identity a secret. Some heroes and villains went all out with their disguises, going for the flashy, sensationalized nonsense that Sage despised. Instead, Sage chose a simple black metal mask that covered everything from his eyebrows down to his chin, black pants, black combat boots, a black shirt, and a black military style jacket over top. Sometimes he also wore a beanie, or a hood if he was worried about cameras getting a super clear shot of him. Not that much could be identified just from his hair color anyway, but Sage was always worried someone would see him out and about in public and recognize his specific hairline or something.

Sage was taking a gamble today, assuming that the cameras inside a Vice & Venom store, while probably better than the cameras in, like, a dollar store, still wouldn’t be good enough to capture fine details.

Sage found Luis sitting criss-cross-applesauce against a dirty alley wall behind the Vice & Venom store, looking surprisingly well-behaved. The only time Luis ever really managed to sit still and not cause some sort of trouble was during heists when he knew he had to chill out. Sage wished he could find that zen more often.

Once Luis spotted Sage, he grinned, which Sage only knew because Luis’s teeth were visible behind the full-face mask he was wearing. Luis went old-school robber, pulling a beanie over his head with holes cut out for his eyes and mouth. He looked ridiculous, but then again, Sage probably looked pretty stupid to an outsider too.

Luis immediately hopped up to go for the door at the back of the store, and Sage hurriedly used his power to dampen the sound, not that he was particularly worried about someone hearing them at this stage, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Luis made quick work of the deadbolt, opening the door after only a few seconds with all the ease of someone who’d been picking locks their entire life. True to Luis’s word, no alarms were triggered when the door swung open, and they quickly ducked inside after Sage gave a quick, two-fingered salute to the camera monitoring the door.

Once inside, they ended up in what was clearly a stockroom, with neatly labelled shelves holding purses and accessories and racks with clothes hanging on them. Sage half-expected Luis to go straight for the clothes to start picking out his own new wardrobe, but surprisingly, Luis went right past all that, heading out another door into a short hallway. Sage followed, letting Luis take the lead. This was his heist after all. Sage was just an unwilling participant.

In the hallway, Luis first ducked into a room on the right, having to quickly pick the lock on it first. They ended up in an office space, with a computer and desk along one wall, and – bingo. A black safe was built into the wall next to it.

Sage went toward the safe, thinking that Luis was going to go for that immediately, but he frowned when he realized Luis had stopped by the desk, plopping right down in the desk chair and opening up every single drawer of the desk, rifling through the contents.

Sage wanted to ask what he was doing, but he was hesitant to stop using his muting power in order to talk to him. Luis wasn’t really making much noise with what he was doing, but Sage didn’t want to risk lowering their security blanket.

Instead, Sage crossed his arms impatiently, watching Luis attempt to log into the computer this time. He was looking for information, something specific, clearly. But what? What information could a Vice & Venom store have that would be valuable to a low-level criminal like Luis?

…Sage didn’t know if he wanted to know. Luis’s business was his own, and Sage knew very well that getting involved in it would get very sticky very fast. Sage just wanted to get this over with and get out so he could get rid of Luis for good.

Even though some small part of Sage was pretty sure Luis had latched onto Sage for life. Sage wasn’t stupid. He knew telling Luis he was going to retire wouldn’t really stop him from trying to pull Sage into his messes. Sage would have to figure out some more permanent way to get Luis off his back, but for now, he just wanted to finish this job and go home.

Luis, surprisingly, managed to successfully log into the computer. Sage didn’t know if he’d hit a lucky guess on the password, or if he had seen it written down somewhere nearby.

Sage watched over Luis’s shoulder as he bypassed shipping orders, inventory logs, and sales information. Instead, he went right for some file simply named ‘Corporate.’

Sage frowned and went to lean in curiously to read over Luis’s shoulder, but before he could really focus on the document names in the file, the office door came slamming open, nearly smacking right into Sage given how narrow the space was.

The one drawback to Sage’s power reared its ugly head. He could mute his and Luis’s sound so they didn’t alarm anyone nearby, but the power wasn’t specific. It muted everything. Which gave Lich the perfect opportunity to sneak right up on them.

Why was Lich coming after them in a Vice & Venom store when they hadn’t tripped any alarms and the cameras weren’t actively monitored? Why did he deduce that someone was inside up to no good when they’d closed the doors behind them and didn’t turn on any lights to prevent being seen?

Sage didn’t have the answers to these questions, didn’t even have time to think about it really, because in a split-second Lich was on him, tackling Sage to the ground and causing Luis to yelp soundlessly, hopping out of the desk chair and nearly climbing right onto the desk to get away from the fight.

And it was definitely a fight. Sage immediately threw a punch at Lich’s stomach and kicked him away so he could roll out from under him, only to be grabbed from behind and pinned under Lich’s body weight. Sage froze momentarily at the heat coming off the man behind him, seeping right through Sage’s clothes. He swallowed hard, an unwanted flash of having Lich’s bare skin pressing hotly against his in that cold alleyway crossing his mind. Sage was grateful for the mask hiding his reddened cheeks.

See, this was exactly what Sage wanted to avoid. God, this was so fucking awkward.

Sage snapped his head back, catching Lich in the jaw and making him release his grip slightly so Sage could scramble out of his hold. Sage didn’t waste a second, grabbing Luis by the arm and hauling him out of the office with him. He didn’t care that they hadn’t managed to steal anything or that Luis hadn’t found whatever information he was looking for. Now that the asshole was here, they weren’t going to get anything useful. This was a bust.

Time to get the fuck out.

Except of course it wouldn’t be that easy. Lich was nothing if not persistent, and he caught up to them quickly. He got to Luis first, grabbing him and throwing him down the hallway toward the front of the store. Luis rolled and then lay still on the floor, playing dead.

Luis had dealt with Lich quite a few times over the years considering Lich was always coming after Sage and Sage was always helping Luis with his schemes, so he knew for himself how fucking terrifying Lich could be. Whenever Lich showed up, Luis usually found a corner to hide in until Sage managed to lead him away, and it looked like he was going to use that strategy again.

Which, when Sage thought about it, might actually be a good thing. If Sage could get Lich to follow him out of the store, it would leave Luis behind to actually steal something, so their efforts would be worth all the hassle.

With that in mind, Sage bolted back through the stockroom, going for the back door with Lich right on his heels.