The police car's sirens blared, clearing the cars in front like a parting of the seas. The thrilling part of the job that Madison enjoyed the most was weaving in and out of traffic at high speed towards a crime in progress with hopes of being the one to save the day. Until Madison managed to get a promotion to detective, it was all she could do to stay relevant and in the good graces of her captain.
Her partner, Liam, handled the radio while she zoned out driving as she usually did.
"She's there already." Liam said.
"Fuck."
Madison almost smashed into another car when she received the news. Part of the problem of being a cop was that half the time they were made redundant by that annoying stupid superhero Golden Girl. She had super strength, she could fly and somehow, she seemed to always make it to the crime scene first. It's like she had her own team working for her behind the scenes giving her intel. Either the cops were first to the scene and had to bust their asses and use their wits to contain the situation or they arrived and found that Golden Girl had already cleared everything up. It just wasn't fair
But Golden Girl wasn't getting to get full credit this time. Not if Madison had anything to say about it. She stepped on the gas causing Liam to tightly grip the holy shit bar.
"This won't solve anything, Madissson."
Back in the zone, she didn't care what her partner thought as she dodged traffic. All that mattered was they at least did something to help the case. After dangerously running two red lights, Madison pulled into the warehouse parking lot. It was one of Kollar Tech's old plants before the ethical PR storm had hit the company and forced all of the skeletons out of the closet. Having been abandoned a long time, it wasn't the dumbest place for a hideout.
Liam got out of the car and caught up with his partner who was almost running towards the building.
"So, what's the plan?" Liam asked.
"Let's see what we're dealing with first." Madison said.
The two officers found a broken window and entered. Systematically, they searched each room in the vicinity, with Madison hoping to find something useful that they could use for a reward. But the place was seemingly empty with no sights or sounds of activity.
"Maybe it's the wrong place." Liam said.
"Shhh." Madison said. "I hear something."
Liam's ears perked up and he signaled that he heard it too. The two cops hurried down the hallway towards the noise, hastily checking each room on the way to ensure they wouldn't be blindsided. When they got to the door at the end of the hallway, there was no doubt that the noise was coming from whatever was behind it. The two cops paused and waited to see if they could hear anything else from inside. There were a few sounds, but nothing substantial.
"What was the report for again?" Liam asked.
"Some sort of illegal chemical, I think." Madison said.
"Is it really safe to go in there? Maybe we should let Golden Girl handle this one."
Madison's eyes pierced through to his soul. This wasn't about safety. This was about taking risks and receiving rewards. It was a temperament that Liam clearly lacked.
"I'll scout and let you know." Madison said.
She didn't have time for his cowardice. Besides, she knew that he'd eventually follow her lead. If there was one thing that Liam feared more than entering a potentially dangerous situation, it was losing his partner in a potentially dangerous situation. She didn't have to look behind her to know he was covering her rear.
On the other side of the door, despite being an abandoned warehouse, there was a lot of activity, indicating that the bad guys had been there quite some time. In the middle of the room, Golden Girl was surrounded by men with guns pointed at her. Madison wasn't sure if the men were stupid or just didn't know that guns weren't going to hurt the superheroine. It was possible that the comfort of pointing something at Golden Girl was all that was keeping the men from running around in terror.
"You tell me who's the boss and I won't smash the rest of your faces." Golden Girl said.
The powerful hero had a squeaky-clean media image that made her out to be a saint. But Madison had seen her in action often enough to know that Golden Girl thoroughly enjoyed beating bad guys up.
"You think we're scared of you." One man said. He was the only one who was not pointing a gun at Golden Girl.
Golden Girl turned to him. "Ah, so you're the one in charge."
She tried to rush towards him, but she couldn't move from her spot. Golden Girl tried repeatedly, but her feet wouldn't budge.
"You fell right into our trap, Golden Girl." The man said. His only distinguishing feature was the scar on his right cheek.
"This is impossible. How are you doing this?" Golden Girl said. For the first time in Madison's experience, the superheroine's tone had a hint of fear.
"Science." Scarface confidently said confidently. "And now that you are in are custody, nobody's going to stop us."
Madison had heard enough. The power source for whatever was holding Golden Girl was clearly coming from the ceiling directly over her head. As much as Madison didn't want to release her rival, the men had automatic weapons that she and Liam couldn't handle it. All she needed to do while Golden Girl took out the other men was put a bullet in the leader's head. Win win.
"Brace yourself." Madison said.
"Are you crazy? They have automatics." Liam said.
"Well then let's hope this plan works."
It was one of her worst qualities but acting first without thinking the plan through had served her well so far in her career. She wasn't about to stop it now. Madison aimed high and emptied her clip in the contraption on the ceiling. A small explosion signaled that something had been destroyed as the debris and large chunks of the roof fell to the ground on top of Golden Girl.
Liam yelped at the sight of Golden Girl being crushed. Madison didn't blame him because if the hero dead, so was their only chance of survival. All the men, except Scarface, were looking at the debris in the middle of the room, hoping that it didn't move. Unlike his henchman, Scarface was looking for the source of the gunfire and he spotted Madison leaning out from behind a stack of containers.
"Hey, we got cops in here!" Scarface yelled.
Madison quickly reloaded her clip. If she was going down, it wasn't going to be while she was running away. It was going to be taking as many of them with her.
"I'm sorry, Liam." Madison said.
"No, you're not." Liam said with bitterness. He wasn't going to abandon her no matter how afraid he was. Like Madison, he had pride in the fact that he was a dependable teammate. Even if that meant dying.
Madison and Liam braced themselves for the hail of gunfire. But instead of the echo of bullets flying, the thunderous sound of concrete hitting the floor made everyone turn. To Madison and Liam, it was the equivalent of seeing a guardian angel in a time of need. A Golden angel.
"You really thought that could hold me." Golden Girl said, now standing among the debris.
There were screams of panic as the men ran in every direction. Like a predator picking off its prey, Golden Girl caught each person one by one, completely disarming and knocking them out cold before moving onto the next one. With the distraction now set, Madison looked for Scarface among the chaos and found him heading towards the exit. The problem was that Golden Girl had spotted him too.
