Felix peaked in through the dojo's windows, seeing it empty except for Johnathan, Harper, and Johnathan's brother, George. The latter was sitting off to the side, inspecting his fingernails. He must be missing out on valuable karate time, which brought into question what Johnathan wanted so urgently.
He walked in, Harper dashing to him upon hearing the door open. "We messed up, Felix," she said, her mouth forming words a million miles a minute.
"We did what?" Felix gave her a quick hug as he tried to get a grasp on things.
"We walked into the bathrooms as ourselves and came out as superheroes. There's CCTV footage inside the bar. If anyone bothered to check it yet, we're in big trouble," she explained. Horror dawned on Felix. It had literally been his first time wearing his suit, and his secret identity was in jeopardy.
"We suck at this whole secretive thing, don't we?" he mumbled. "How did this come to mind?"
Harper nodded towards Johnathan, who was also approaching Felix, but with a much smaller clip. "He called me to ask how we went about changing into our suits and everything. Apparently, we saved Gerald Smith… it was all over the news. The local government promised to conduct some sort of investigation into our identities after some backlash from the anti-Super protestors."
"It's an unfortunate situation to be caught up in," Johnathan said, his calm voice a welcome alternative to Harper's panicked one. "We need to get to the footage before some detective does."
Felix paced back and forth, thinking with all his might. "What if Harper snuck in during her next shift?"
"It'll be too late," Johnathan said. "They'll have gotten to it by then."
"What if I tell my boss I forgot something and made a detour to her office and wiped the security footage?" Harper offered. Johnathan actually seemed to give this idea some thought before shooting it down.
"It might be too obvious if the recordings go missing after you need something from inside the otherwise closed bar," he noted. Felix agreed with him, but he could think of no better idea.
"Do we have another choice?" he asked, hoping that Johnathan did actually come up with a better idea.
"No, I guess we don't," he replied, shattering any hope of a more reasonable rescue plan. From then on, they had a round table of sorts, sitting around the dojo's insignia in the center of the training area. It was a quick meeting – it had to be if they were going to beat any kind of investigation to the punch – but they coached Harper on what to say to her boss, how to access the security footage, and how to delete it. The last bit of that information was supplied by George, who desperately wanted to see them out of the dojo.
They were on the street minutes after. Harper initiated the first phase of the plan: calling her boss. Based on what she said, her boss was usually a pretty relaxed person, so this would be the easiest part of the operation.
True to their assumption of her, Harper's boss okayed Harper's request to go in and grab some things without much of a hassle at all. Making a small detour, Harper led them to her coworker's house. She was the previous night's closer, and so Harper needed to collect the keys from her. It took more than a few knocks at the door to muster a response from inside, and the woman who stumbled out through the door looked like she had been hit by a truck.
Well, she looked tired enough to have been hit by a truck. Her hair resembled what it looked like when you touch one of those plasma balls they show off in physics class. Harper convinced her coworker that she needed the key to the bar, and it didn't take the half-asleep person much to convince them.
The bar itself was a short bus ride away, and when they arrived, it was to a bustling street full of people in business suits or other luxurious attire. It was easy enough to ignore the wealth of the bar and its patrons at night, when everyone was far from peak business condition. But when everyone was flaunting it during the day, it really allowed Felix to realize where he had been hanging out recently.
The business area of West City surrounded the administrative center, including City Hall. It was an incredibly important region of the city. All the movers and shakers lived and worked within its confines, and it was humbling to walk around among them. The three of them certainly stuck out like sore thumbs, though.
Harper left Johnathan and Felix at the door, entrusting them with the job to let her know if she had any company on the way. And, if the situation demanded it, distract the detectives long enough for Harper to accomplish her mission's goal. Felix hoped that it wouldn't come to that; he didn't really have any cards to play to distract people.
The sound of sirens approached. A lone police car barreled down the street as much as it could, weaving between cars that refused to make way for it. Felix prepared himself, wiping away the sweat that had begun building on his forehead. And then, the car passed by, rushing away.
Felix let out a deep sigh of relief, only to nearly get a heart attack from Harper stealthily placing a hand on his shoulders. He jumped, turning around to see a jubilant Harper.
"Mission accomplished!" she exclaimed, doing a small victory dance. Johnathan let out a big sigh and smiled. Felix grinned with them, but as they walked away, Felix was left with one thought: this had been too easy.
Nah, he'd just been spending too much time around Kyle. There's not always something deeper to everything. As they walked down the street, the congestion in the street grew greater. The cars could not move, and pedestrians rushed past them. There was something going on. The sound of sirens cinched it.
Felix ran past Harper and Johnathan, hearing the sound of sirens increase in volume. Tearing through the crowd in as much of a non-confrontational way as possible, Felix fought to the front. When his head was clear, he could feel his heart stop for a moment. There were so many people…