Chapter 1: Failure to Follow Protocol
The concrete facade and tinted windows of Alterra City Bank starred emptily out onto the dark street as Summer slowed her motorcycle to a halt in front of it. Taillight and headlight reflected only for a moment off the shadowy glass before she turned it off and dismounted. She removed her helmet and cast a puzzled glance with her pale blue eyes along the premises, searching seemingly for something that wasn't there. Her red-gloved hand pulled her cellphone from the messenger bag she had slung over her shoulder and tapped on screen a few times until a friendly voice chirped back.
"Artificer here. Whatcha need Cinder?"
"The distress call we got was from the Alterra Bank on 53rd and Webbley right?"
"That sounds right, let me check." A cacophony of clacking keys from one of Artificer's annoyingly loud keyboards spilled through the phone's speakers, causing Summer to pull it away from her ear hastily. She had to hear those sounds all yesterday while working operations and logistics with Artificer and had thought herself free from them for at least another week. "Affirmative Cinder, 53rd and Webbley."
Summer looked at the placid exterior of the building, hoping to discern a clue of why she was dispatched here. The place didn't look like it was in the middle of a robbery, shootout, or heist. In fact everything from lack of movement inside to the "Closed" sign hanging in the window of the door seemed to indicate that nothing exciting at all was happening here, let alone a crime.
"I'm not seeing anything suspicious Jen, the place just looks like it's closed."
"Dammit Cinder, codenames!" Artificer was always a stickler for using "proper operational protocol" between HQ and any of the heroines out in the field. Summer rolled her eyes. Did she think that in a city of roughly 95% women that someone overhearing a call would go through the thousands of Jens and Jennifers to uncover her secret identity? Another wave of clacking keys filled the air almost as punishment. "Well the distress signal originated from the bank's back office system. Could be an accidental trigger or the system on the fritz."
"No police alarm?"
"Nada. Just the one to us."
"Alright, I'm headed back." Summer moved to put the helmet back on over her long blonde hair with the fire-red stripe flowing down the center, but was interrupted by Artificer.
"Negative Cinder. Alterra Bank pays us to fully investigate when any of these alarms go off and their contract renegotiation is in two weeks. Can you just check around the building, make sure the doors are all locked, whatever?" Summer could hear a sigh from the other end of the line. "Last thing we need is them showing us footage of one of us wandering off without investigating from some sort of weird test they were trying to pull."
"Alright, I'll take a look around for a few minutes, keep an eye on the place for the next half-hour or so to make sure no one suspicious comes out, and then I'm going to head home. I'll call back if I see anything."
"Roger that, Cinder. Hopefully it's a quiet night."
"Thanks Jen, see you Monday." Summer cut off a scolding Artifcer and placed her phone back in her messenger bag, swinging it around to the back of her red leather jacket.
"First thing's first", she thought to herself, "Let's check the front door."
Summer strode down the street at first a bit cautiously, glancing back over both shoulders for any signs of movement on a late spring evening, then with the swagger befitting one of the United League of Superheroines. The start of a smile came to her face for a brief moment thinking about how she had to look right now, the little girl from Wheatton now a superheroine. And while she was technically wearing the "traditional" spandex leotard, she and a few others had convinced Egality Gal that the uniforms were not only outdated but unsafe for many of them to work in. So she had the red spandex leotard with the black accents meant to evoke flames on, but wore a red leather jacket and black jeans over it. She'd swapped out the mid-calf, 4" heel boots for dark red combat boots and got the gloves altered down to only extend a little past the wrist. Egality Gal may be able to fight crime precariously perched on heels, get out of a motorcycle accident with not a single scratch on her, and dodge lasers with constricting clothes; but not her.
Summer stopped in front of the door, held her hands up against it to block the external lights from the street, and peered in. Nothing. Just empty space waiting for the next weekday. She pushed off of the door to straighten herself back up, but found that the door gave inwards. Someone had left it unlocked. Warily she entered the building, looking around the empty lobby for any hints as to what was going on. She thought momentarily about calling to see if anyone was there, but decided against it as if something was going down it could prevent her from having the element of surprise on her side.
Summer made her way past the empty teller booths, back towards the manager's office and began to open the door when a sudden noise made her snap her hand back. She was no stranger to booby traps, having run into many villains and even a few legitimate businesses using them to keep nosy superheroines out. She breathed a sigh of relief a moment later when she realized it was just her phone. She whipped the phone out of her bag to see a message from Artificer. Opening it, she found a three paragraph screed about the importance of using codenames over communication channels that weren't Tier 3 secured. A light chuckle escaped her mouth before she remembered that she hadn't cleared the building yet and that there could be someone else in the bank.
Summer gently opened the manager's office to find it empty, just like the rest of the bank. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, thinking about if she should search through the office or just let it be. Making her decision, she set a foot through the door when suddenly an alarm sounded off in the distance. She snapped her head to the right and leaned back out the door trying to pinpoint the sound, a low pulsing klaxon just barely audible from where she was standing.
Leaving the manager's office she walked down the hallway behind the teller's booths, the noise getting gradually louder. Almost at the end of the hallway she saw an open door labeled "Vault", the sound still gradually reverberating out through the opening. Warily, she made her way through the door and into the vault room. She summoned a small flame at the tip of her right pointer finger to prepare herself for any trouble she might run into and looked around the room. The door she was stepping through was in the corner of this room, which was filled with a large number of safety deposit boxes, a few tables, and various binders of paper.
Towards the corner farthest from her was the door to the actual vault: a large, thick, steel oval with three keypads and hydraulic arms. It was currently open and blocking her view of most of the interior of the vault.
"Looks like there may have been a robbery here after all," she thought to herself, "I should call for backup." She began reaching for her phone, flicking out the little flame on her finger. "But if I had a better idea of what's going on, then I could let operations know whether we need someone at the bank to stop a heist or someone outside looking for money that's already been stolen." She grabbed the phone from her bag and tapped the screen on. "But if I'm spotted before being able to call in then I won't get a chance to request backup, and that can lead to some really dangerous situations." She bit her lip for a moment before coming to her decision. "I'll send a text message to Artificer telling her to expect a followup in ten minutes and to send backup if I don't respond by then, that seems best."
She began typing out the message to her teammate when the alarm suddenly stopped. It's absence stopped her mid-message and allowed another sound to reach her ears. A moaning sound was coming from the vault and it sounded distressed. Worried that someone might be in immediate danger she skulked over to the vault, flames dancing on the tips of her fingers. Peeking around the corner she saw the source of the noise, a woman with her mouth gagged by a thick piece of cloth and hands tied to a metal crossbar built into the vault.
Summer checked around the rest of the vault searching for who might have done this, but saw no one other than the bound woman on the floor. Piles of cash sat in neat stacks along the walls of the vault in racks built into the side with heavy plexiglass doors covering them; one rack being conspicuously empty.
"Why would someone steal only a portion of the money?" Summer asked herself as she moved into the room. The woman on the floor saw the superheroine and began to groan louder, pulling on her restraints. Now that Summer had a clearer look at her, she was pretty sure this was the bank manager. Middle-aged, wearing a professional suit, dark hair pulled back in a bun, good looking but not overly feminine, relatively fit looking: everything about her screamed "I manage a bank" to Summer. It also helped that she had a pin on her lapel stating that not only was she named Alisha, but that her title was "Regional Branch Manager".
"Alisha is it?" Summer asked the woman who nodded frantically in response, "Give me one second and I'll have you out of those ropes." Alisha's eyes lit up at that and Summer almost thought she could see a smile.
Summer knelt down beside the woman and dismissed her fire. She'd learned at a young age that cutting corners with superpowers often led to disastrous results. Trying to precision burn the rope off could save seconds or it could horrendously burn the poor woman she was trying to help. She opted instead for the pocket knife she carried, and began working on the ropes. Alisha seemed to be trying to say something to her, but she couldn't quite make it out.
