Double Dog Dare

“Look, I’m not doing this.” Jubal Lazarre, better known as Entropy, whispered harshly to his companions. He roughly brushed his light brown hair back from his eyes. “I never signed on for something like this.” The imposing wall of the bank building just across the alley from their hiding place seemed to loom above them.

A rough hand shoved Jublal’s shoulder. “Shut the hell up. You’re the one that came to me for a score.” The hand shoved him again, “Now move your ass or else.” The voice was low and hard.

Jubal glared at Slick, a gap-toothed ganger only a couple years older than Jubal was. He looked hunched in his black leather jacket that was several sizes too big for him. “Or else what?” Jubal snarled. “Did you forget who you’re talking to?”

Slick’s lips pulled back into a feral grin, “No, I didn’t, Freak. And I didn’t forget where you live, neither.”

The pair stared at one another for what seemed like an eternity before one of the other 3 gangster wannabes swore. “Both you bitches shut up and move. We’re running out of time.”

Jubal looked away first, That sunuvabitch threatened my family. He cursed under his breath. Aloud, he hissed, “This ain’t over, Slick.” His threat was met with a contemptuous snort. Looking around the deserted street, Jubal didn’t see any cars or stray pedestrians, so he headed across the alley to the First Chicago Bank and Trust. On the bank’s east wall there was a gap of 3 feet between it and the café next to it. Jubal worked himself into the gap and about 15 feet in he stopped and looked back at his companions. Buddah would never fit into the gap, the kid weighted upwards of 400 pounds. So he’d been set with the task of keeping watch from across the alley.

Slick and Devon squeezed into the tiny space between the buildings behind Jubal. “Alright. We’re in and out. Let’s just get this over with.” Jubal said and lifted his hand to place his palm flat against the brick of the wall. A dark nimbus of energy formed around his hand and almost instantly the brick began to crumble and turn to dust. Very quickly, the palm-size hole in the wall grew to almost 4 feet in diameter. Jubal puffed out a small breath and the energy surrounding his hand changed from a nebulous black to a vibrant orange. Creaking was heard as the decaying of the bricks stopped and the crumbled edges turned dark and slick-looking. Jubal peeked inside, but saw nothing in the dim interior. “Looks clear.” He whispered.

Jubal was about to pull back when he was shoved roughly again. “Get your ass inside. You’re not done yet.” Slick growled.

Jubal shoved Slick’s offending hand away, “Get your hands off me, Slick.” Again the pair stared each other down until the other two gangers swore and pushed past Slick and Jubal to crawl through the hole in the bank’s wall. Jubal followed and then Slick joined them. The beams of their flashlights flicked around the office they found themselves in and the 4 slipped to the door to peer out to the lobby. No one was in sight, so Slick shouldered past the others and stalked out toward the vault.

Following behind Slick, Jubal and the other two gang members headed toward the huge, old-fashioned steel vault door. They all parted to allow Jubal access to the huge door. Rather than moving to the massive door, Jubal went to the wall beside it instead. “What the hell are you…?” Slick started. Jubal held up a hand to silence him. “That door is probably 3 feet thick. The wall isn’t.”

Seething, Slick fell quiet. Jubal placed his palm flat against the wall and as before, it became engulfed in a black energy. The drywall disappeared nearly instantly. The steel behind it, however, took much longer to effect. Rust appeared on the surface, then it became pitted and the pits grew into holes which eventually spread to connect together. It took 3 minutes to see through to the vault. Jubal kept his head bent and poured more energy into the hole, expanding it little by little.

Slick and the other 2 gang-bangers fidgeted and grew anxious as the minutes passed. Suddenly, a man in the uniform of a security guard appeared from down the hallway on his usual route through the building. For the briefest moment, the guard and the gangsters simply stared in shock at one another. Slick recovered first and hauled a 9 mm from the back waistband of his jeans and simply fired. The guard went down hard, crying out in pain. Without even stopping, Slick marched up to the prone guard and fired down at him 4 more times, killing him.

The other two gangers started shouting at once. “What the hell, man!”

“Where’d he come from? We gotta get the hell out of here!”

“You didn’t say nothin’ about no gun, man!”

Jubal had jerked reflexively when the gun had gone off, his hold on his entropic powers flickering out instantly. Standing away from the wall of the vault, he stared wide-eyed at the guard whose blood continued to spread in a pool around his body. “Oh my god” Jubal whispered in shock. In a sudden rage, Jubal rushed forward meaning to grab Slick and beat him senseless.

Slick sensed things were getting out of hand and he whipped the gun up, hammering Jubal across the temple with it and dropping him to the floor, dazed. He crouched next to Jubal and growled at him, “You listen to me, you freak. You say a word about this, your family gonna die. You hear?” Slick shoved Jubal’s head harshly to the floor and turned to his friends, “Let’s get the hell out of here. Leave this bitch here.” Slick and the other two gangers raced for the hole in the wall and disappeared into the night.

Jubal lay on the floor dazed and bleeding from a slight cut at his temple. His mind was screaming for him to move, to run. But, his body seemed too heavy and his limbs didn’t seem to work right. Eventually he pushed himself to his feet and staggered to the hole in the wall, practically falling through it. Pressing himself against the opposite wall, he staggered toward the alley as fast as his wobbly legs would carry him.

Max pulled his rebuilt blue 1975 Camaro up behind Slick's black 1989 Chevrolet Caprice. All of his group and the newbie, Jubal, exited the vehicle. Just why she had gotten mixed with the group, she didn't know. She supposed part of it was a lack of knowing where to go in life. She knew Mr. Khan, her foster father, wouldn't want this for her. But she didn't want him to die, either. Slick and his cohorts walked over to the structure to begin their attempt to break into the facility while Max and Amy stayed outside looking for any sign of cops or trouble.

"Think he's gonna pull it off?" Amy asked Max who kept his hands on the wheel. She reached into the pocket on his flannel shirt for a bent cigarette and put it in her mouth. Grasping a lighter out of the cup holder on the vehicle, she put it up to the end of the cigarette and lit it, coaxing the embers to grow with her breath. Max frowned before responding.

"If he doesn't, that's why you're here." he replied. Amy looked to him with a glare with her icy blue eyes behind her long black bangs. She didn't like being used by Slick for her powers. The guy was always looking for an easy way to get what he wanted. Pretty soon, more metahumans like her were bound to show up.

"That's not gonna happen." Amy snarled as she turned her face towards the building they were breaking into. Seems the boy was as useful as he stated. She let the cigarette roll to the left side of her mouth as she inhaled another breath.

"What else ya think yer here for? Stealin' smokes?" Max taunted. "Eye Candy?" He continued, reaching his arm over and moving in on her. A lightning quick hand sprang up and chopped him in the neck, causing him to gag. She didn't even turn around to see where she was aiming the swing, she just knew. Max struggled to gasp breaths of air, as Amy continued to watch the group get into the structure. They were now out of sight. Turning to Max, he looked like he had something he wanted to say, but it just took a few seconds before it came.

"The hell you do that for! Now yer in trouble." Max put his foot on the seat and attempted to throw himself on her. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize what he was after. She could have used her powers but she didn't really have to. Her elbow jabbed him in the eye, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. She shifted her body to allow her legs freedom to kick him in the face again, causing him to reel back into the driver-side door. Using the toe of her boot, she opened the handle as Max fell out of the vehicle. She hopped over to the driver seat and closed the door behind him, locking it.

Max sprang up to his feet with his hand over his eye. Amy gave him a grin with her teeth clenching the burning cigarette. He then stormed off to Slick's car. He didn't want to deal with her anymore, which suited her just fine. A gunshot rang in the Chicago Bank and Trust. She didn't think he would use the gun. She stared as they all ran out and into Slick's car. Except the newbie, Jubal, wasn't with them. Slick's car took off, seems they didn't even get anything. It was over too quick. She waited a few moments to see what would happen. Sure enough, Jubal came stumbling out of the opening he had made with blood streaming down his forehead. Amy started the car up, put the Camaro in first gear and pulled it up to block Jubal's path to the alleyway.

"Get in." She said, with cop sirens echoing in the distance. It wouldn't be long before they came.

Little by little and day by day the recent string of complete lack of stability in his everyday life were starting to bother him quite a bit.John was never spoiled or uptight in the slightest.In fact he was usually well adapted into dealing with situations when they arise.The thing was though that he always before had something consistent to fall back on.Recently however he did not feel like he had anything.Normal life was just plain chaotic as best, his ventures into being a superhero were getting out of control and it was hard.

Here and now in Chicago he was.A midwestern metropolis he had been too on only three previous occasions.Each one rather short.The longest was a mere two weeks.He had arrived just yesterday and within hours of doing so got into a brief scuffle with a couple of would be gangsters.The situation he developed with them had barely not become an all out brawl or something along those lines.Could have turned out pretty bad.It seemed to be mainly due to the presence of so many people in the area at the time that nothing major wound up happening.That and it seemed like those guys had something else on their minds to even focus on anything but that even though they did not seem like the brightest of fellows.

As of now John waited around outside of a bank in line in order to use the atm machine.He had completely forgotten to withdraw any from before and now he was down to just a few dollars, most of which was in change.It was cold and windy that day and he altogether was not dressed that well for such weather so it was getting to him a bit.He shivered a little as he waited trying to focus not on the cold but on something else so it wouldn't be as bad as it is now.Despite few people being around at the moment he still had to wait for nearly ten minutes before finally getting his turn.As quickly as he could simply because he did not want to force others to wait on him for too long, he logged into his account and withdrew $40 and finished his transaction.He then walked away from the machine and as he was walking away from the bank noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

It was a few older teens standing around in the alleyway next to the bank.John would have primarily dismissed this entirely but wound up not able to.He had been looking for only a couple of seconds and yet had managed to recognize a couple of them.It was those two gangsters he had unfortunately ran into yesterday.He quickly stepped back and was now hiding behind the wall and out of their sight because he did not want them to see him for the second day in a row.Now as much as this was a strange coincidence it was seeing them again what bothered him was what they could be doing in that alleyway.John doubted it was anything good.Sure enough within seconds of thinking that something bad did happen.

One of them, one he did not recognize from yesterday at all had placed one of his hands on the wall.A seemingly meaningless thing to do until his hand started to glow.He could not tell from this angle what was going on but it seemed something major had for all four of them soon seemed to disappear into the wall itself.Now that was just odd to him so he quietly snuck into the alley and looked at where they had disappeared.A hole stood there in the wall.It led into the bank itself.Well, now he knew what they had been doing in the alleyway.

All in all considering the situation he did not want to exactly get involved in this at all.It wasn't like he had much reason to but his slowly developing samaritan syndrome was being very demanding of such a thing.After these thoughts all went through his head he had his costume ready but started to walk away again only to hear gunshots.Apparently they'd been found out.John got out of there really quickly.He ran across the street and hid in the shadows of another alleyway.Looking back to the bank he saw three people reemerge from that alleyway where the hole in the bank's wall was.From the looks of it the one who had created the hole was not with them.Maybe he had been hit by the gunfire that had gone off.It could be.Was probably most likely.He was about to put on the mask and pursue them but didn't have much chance.They were already entering into a getaway vehicle.His chances of doing anything to stop them were slim to none at this rate.

He leaned back up against the wall and just sighed.He put the costume away again and just stood there hidden until he heard a car's engine.Said car suddenly pulled up to the bank.The kid who made the hole in the wall was emerging from the bank and looked wounded.The car was now parked near him.Looks like he was alive after all.

Jubal got his legs to obey him and brushed the rivulet of blood from his face as he aimed for the alley. He had to get away from the bank and… Just then the blue Camaro that had followed them to the back pulled up to block his way. He growled and put his hands up prepared to trash the car right around whoever was driving it. But, instead of being jumped the girl that had been along threw open the passenger door and shouted for him to get inside.

Jubal narrowed his eyes at the girl, suspicious for just a moment. He quickly got over it, after all, the time to be suspicious and cautious was days ago. He ran around the front of the car and practically threw himself into the passenger seat. “He killed a guard. That bastard killed a guard. For no reason!” He seethed as he glanced at the girl. He’d only seen her through the window of the car. He didn’t even know her name for sure. Tammy? Amy? It really didn’t matter at the moment.

Jubal reached up to gingerly touch at the small wound at his temple. Wincing, he stopped prodding and looked at the girl as she drove. “Why’d you stay behind?” He asked, his tone more harsh than he might have intended. “To make sure I didn’t go after Slick?”

As soon as Jubal entered the vehicle, she let go of the clutch and laid her foot on the gas pedal while it was still in first gear. She didn't give him time to even close the door before the car was in motion. Amy upshifted the vehicle to second gear moments later, pushing the vehicle to climb at a faster rate. Jubal seemed steamed. Well, he should be. Someone clubbed him in the head hard enough to split it open a bit. Without taking her eyes off the road, Amy reached over his lap and opened the glove box, then returned her hands to the gear stick. Some fast food restaurant napkins were stuffed in it. Unknown to Amy, though, they were covering a loaded revolver with six chambers.

"I noticed you got left behind, it wasn't like I was going to wait long. I don't leave people behi-." She began to respond, but was cut off by a bullet sailing through the back window, shattering it. Her instinctive response was to duck her head down, even though it was far too late to dodge any bullets. Amy raised her head back up and adjusted her rear view mirror. A security guard from the bank had fired at them. They knew what vehicle she was in. Approaching an intersection, she cut the wheel, causing the rear end of the Camaro to swing around the turn. They were out of the bank guard's line of sight, but she knew that it was a matter of time before he relayed the vehicle's description to the police and they would come looking for them. Thankfully, it was Max's car. She rolled the window down and flicked the used cigarette out of the vehicle, blowing the last puff of air out of the corner of her mouth away from Jubal.

"And why would you be going after Slick?" she continued the conversation as if nothing had changed. Maybe he didn't realize it, but Jubal said plenty while trying to interrogate her. He revealed that he might want to go after the scumbag. Everything that occurred in the bank all added up in her head though, minus the threat on Jubal's family. So she asked a question she already knew the answer to. "Did he give you that little old bump on your head?"

As the girl drove away, a bullet smashed through the back window making them both flinch instinctively. “Sunuvabitch!” Jubal yelled. Looking back, he saw a guard firing at the rapidly retreating car. Unfortunately, the guard had seen the car. The girl slew the Camaro around a corner putting them out of the guard’s line of sight.

And then the girl just kept talking as if getting shot at was an everyday occurrence. [color:c887=gold”]Why would you be going after Slick? Did he give you that little old bump on your head?”

Jubal gave the girl a withering look. He hated the idea that Slick had taken him out so easily. He wasn’t even a Meta! Jubal snarled softly, “Because he shot a guard for no reason. He made us all accessories. I’m not going to prison for murder for that bastard.” Jubal took a look through the shattered rear window, but saw nothing to alarm him. Yet. “Look. What the hell is your name, anyway?” He asked, slightly frustrated. After a moment, he added, “We have to ditch the car, too.”

(Sorry for the wait. Holidays.)

Accessories? Well it certainly did seem that way. She would have a difficult time proving she wasn't involved after that guard had seen Jubal jump into the car. If she didn't pick him up, she would have been in the clear. Nobody would have even been suspicious if she casually drove off, letting Jubal wander until the guard caught up with him and attempted to subdue him. He was armed, after all. She wasn't sure if Jubal was the type to give up or fight in that kind of situation.

"Wrong, Slick made you an accessory. They're only after the car because you're in it. I'm clean. They probably have your face all over the security tapes." She wasn't sure if Jubal had concealed his face or not. But if it were her, she would have definitely concealed hers. Amy had opened the glove box so Jubal could clean the blood off of his face with the napkins. But it seemed he ignored it completely. It didn't matter to her that much if he wanted to keep it as a momento of the event.

"My name?" She glanced over to Jubal for a moment before returning her eyes to the road. "It's Amy. But pretty soon it won't matter anyway if we get caught now." she responded to him after he asked for a name. If they did get caught, she was unsure whether or not to put all the blame on Jubal. Claiming that he threatened her to drive him off the scene. That would be the cheap way of getting out of the situation. If they were caught, after all, Jubal would be getting the blame no matter what. One thing Jubal said was true, they had to ditch the car. The Camaro wasn't that common of a car where they could blend into their environment. It was a restored muscle car. The second reason was because their rear window was knocked out by the guard's pistol. He probably told the police about it. It was all red flags that told her to ditch the car.

She cut the wheel again, spinning the car to the right. It came to a halt about a foot away from the front end hitting a street light. Shifting the car into reverse, she pulled the car down a back alley and flicked the headlights off. It wouldn't hide the vehicle completely, but they were off the roads. It wouldn't take long before the cops came patrolling down them, looking for the vehicle. She got out of the driver side door and slammed the car door shut.

"You got a knife on you?" Amy asked Jubal, walking away from the vehicle and reaching into her hand bag and pulling out a red scarf. Amy just assumed all guys carried one on them.

"Wrong, Slick made you an accessory. They're only after the car because you're in it. I'm clean. They probably have your face all over the security tapes." The girl stated baldly. Jubal just gaped at her. “You were there too. Like it or not, you’re involved.” He muttered under his breath angrily, “Welcome to my world.” He finally looked down at the blood on his finger tips from his prior exploration of the small wound on his temple. In his line of sight was the open glove box with some napkins. He reached in to grab a few when his hand closed over something very unyielding. Gingerly, he pulled the napkins aside and saw the telltale bluing of a revolver. Sweet Jesus. Jubal thought in mild panic. Did everyone have a damned gun? He tried not to let on that he’d seen the gun.

“A-Amy.” He nodded as he dabbed at his temple. He’d remembered her name at least. The blood was already starting to dry there. Taking his words to heart, apparently, she slammed on the breaks, backed the Camaro into a narrow alleyway and then flipped off the lights. Without preamble, she climbed out of the car quickly, asking if he had a knife. He looked back at the glove box toward the covered gun again, but knew better than to even think of taking it with him as he climbed out of the car too..

“What?” He asked her confusedly. “A …yeah. Yeah.” He frowned, but dug into his pocket for a fair-sized pocket knife. Walking around the back end of the Camaro, he glanced from her to the scarf suspiciously before passing the closed pocket knife to her. “What are you doing?” He couldn’t help it, his body tensed as he stood there looking at her. Pretty? Yes. Trust her? Not a damned bit.

Grasping the handle of the knife, she flipped out the blade. Centering it on the scarf, she cut it evenly in half with a simple twist of her wrist. Locking the blade back into its safe position, she handed the blade and half her scarf over to Jubal. She then proceeded to wrap the piece of cloth around her mouth, concealing the lower half her face, what Jubal should have done in the first place before robbing the bank.

"Now if they catch up with us, they won't be able to at least identify me unless they can catch me. And that won't happen. Let's get out of their search radius. I'm tempted to hotwire a new car. Getting out of here on foot won't exactly be the easiest route." She smirked behind her veiled makeshift mask. She was literally one of the hardest people to capture out there. Her evasive metahuman abilities, inhuman reflexes, and intellect made her untouchable to the average man or woman. A police vehicle came patrolling down the street, as expected. They needed to get miles away from here before being noticed. Then the search would become too distant to pursue. The larger the radius the police had to search, the more spread thin their forces would be, and there would be less patrol vehicles. Though, looking for a murderer, they would be extra persistent.

The police began flashing their searchlight down alleyway after alleyway, fast approaching the ones that Jubal and Amy were positioned at. She began searching for ways to evade the first car. But there was most assuredly more to come. For now it was best to avoid them instead of engage them. Though, whether Jubal knew that or not was another story. There was a door leading to the back entrance of a building alongside the alley walls. Though, it had a padlock on it. She wasn't sure what Jubal's power was exactly but it was what Slick was depending on to get into the bank. Super strength, energy blasts like Mr. Khan? Whatever. She just needed them to get in that door and out of sight. Before they spotted them with the Camaro. She threw her back against the wall next to the door, trying to be as thin as paper so they didn't see the duo.

"Here come the cops, think fast pretty boy. Got anything to get us through this door that got you through that bank?" she whispered. She could use her powers to get through, but he didn't know about that yet. He was too new. If she had to, she could get them both in the door last second before the cops shined their light down the alleyway. But she didn't want Jubal to know anything about her powers just yet. She'd kept it a secret except to two people for this long.

Jubal watched Amy tie a scarf around the lower half of her face with a quirked brow. “You don’t think that’s suspicious?” He rolled his eyes momentarily as he shoved the knife back into his pocket. “We need to get away from the car, right? No fingerprints, even better. Right?” Jubal placed his hand on the back spoiler of the Camaro with a frown of concentration.

Almost immediately a dark nimbus of energy surrounded his hand. Spreading from where Jubal touched the car, rust and pitting began to eat away at the car and crawled along the body as if it was being eaten where it stood. Whole chunks began to dissolve away right before Amy’s eyes. Jubal walked over to join Amy at the pad-locked door. “It’ll be nothing but a handful of dust in a couple of minutes.” He couldn’t help but smirk. Just a little.

Jubal sobered quickly, though. He should have thought ahead before going into the bank at all. He was in deep shit and now was not the time to be showing off. Just then, a powerful spotlight shined down the alleyway. Amy flattened herself against the door instantly. Jubal quickly ducked behind a dumpster. The car was little more than a frame and tires at this point. Jubal willed the disintegration to move faster. It ignored him. The spot lingered on the car frame for a time and then flickered around the far end of the alley.

Finally, the police car moved on. Jubal blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and cursed under his breath. He rejoined Amy and grasped the padlock roughly. Again, dark energy surrounded his hand and the padlock fell to dust in his grip. Throwing the hasp open, Jubal opened the door and jerked his chin inside for Amy to slip under his arm to the building’s dark interior before joining her as quickly as he could.

The interior was so dark that Jubal could barely tell up from down. He didn’t want to move for fear of falling down a stairwell or smashing his head into something. Rummaging around in his pocket, he found his cigarette lighter. Flicking it to light provided a very meager puddle of light, but it was better than nothing. The building was apparently a storehouse for some retail store and filled with display shelves, mannequins and packing crates. Except in the middle of the huge main room; there, Jubal could make out a wooden table and chair, a money counting machine and a pile of empty plastic bags. “Oh great.” He groaned. “Drug house? Really?”