Dynamic Duo: Gauge & Polly

Chapter 2: Holdup

Polly couldn't fly. So he often navigated on Gauge's back, the sun just rising, so he shielded his eyes and squinted ahead as they rapidly flew toward the city's central district. The early morning fog half covered the skyscrapers as Polly and Gauge flew above the clouds, and the glass of said scrapers reflected the light, which explained Polly's hand shield. "So what's the alert about? Did some old lady get her purse snatched? Or is there a cat stuck in a tree somewhere?" Polly teased, Gauge landed on a nearby rooftop. He let Polly down and signed as he felt the wind graze against him lightly; his fur was softly rustling with the wind. "Are you doing that thing again?"

"Hm?"

"The pose." Polly eyed; they were far from the location of said crime in progress. Polly made that note. "Every hero has one. Except for me, of course, because that's silly. What do you feel?" Gauge furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and tilted his head to one end. Then Polly suddenly grabbed Gauge in a burst of annoyance when the fool refused to listen to the inquiry presented to him. Polly hated being ignored, so as he shouted, he took Gauge by his arms and shook him a little, "What do you feel, Gauge?!"

Gauge yelped and tried to hide his blush as he responded, "Erm... a sudden burst of excitement? And call me Nova-Pup!" With a smirk, Polly teased Gauge about his apparent nervousness as they prepared for their superhero duties. "Well, that's... not exactly the heroic intuition I expected," Polly added with a sigh as he released this canine friend. "And you still want to use that silly name? You know what they said about choosing hero names before we finish phase three."

"Aw! I know, but I get excited." Gauge bounced on his heels. And Polly signed, "What's the plan when we get there? We don't even know what we're dealing with."

Gauge blushed slightly, clearing his throat. He did get excited thinking about crime and beating villains up. "Sorry about that. As for the plan, let's assess the situation first. We need to gather information, see if there's anyone in immediate danger, and then decide the best course of action. We're here to protect, not just to jump into things blindly." Gauge pounded his fist into his palm; his gaze was toward the skyline again.

Polly nodded, Gauge held his hand out, and once taken, they, too, took to the skies again. "Got it. Assess and protect. Maybe after this, we can grab some breakfast. I heard there's a new omelet place that opened downtown."

Gauge grinned, feeling the rising sun's warmth on his face as they flew. "You don't eat." Gauge smiled, chuckling lightly. He didn't have to fight the wind. He spoke at average volume. "I like the smells." Polly retorted.

As they approached the reported incident location, the city sprawled beneath them, its early morning hustle just beginning. But the screams of some woman broke that up, and then the quiet morning was quickly canceled out by the chattering of a large crowd as they gathered around a pawnshop. Polly and Gauge landed on yet another building far from the previous one. They found their culprit; the duo could see this from the store window and by DP regulations, despite the perpetrator having a gun and pointing it at a hostage. This was classified as a petty crime. "Why don't you ooze your way into the ventilation system, and I'll scout from here."

"Gauge," Polly started, "That's easy! The cops can take care of this. I can see why the seniors bumped this down to a priority two." Polly planted his hands on the edge of the building and squinted so that he could get a better look at the operation taking place. "He's got a gun, and once we get it out of his hands, he's just a guy... so we can take him out." Gauge frowned, "You're not doing this right... you remember what Shadow Blaze said in Heroic Reconnaissance and Guardian Tactics."

Polly used his hands to mock Gauge. He did so while rolling his eyes, which did not please Gauge. "Yeah... yeah." Polly then put on his best Shadow Blaze impression, overly exaggerated, as he repeated items mentioned in Heroics 102, a course that he and Polly had taken and completed with the superhero mentioned earlier as their instructor. "Assess the situation; never rush in. That stuff, whatever, I forgot. Besides, I like to do my own thing."

"But regulations are important too... you know this." Gauge whined. He was just a little nerdy and weird. But Polly understood that this was important... to both of them. Polly sighed. There was no way around it, so he supposed Gauge's plan was the solid plan. After all, what if more guys were raiding the back of the store? Polly guessed that the approach was warranted; of course, he wouldn't admit it out loud so as not to give Gauge the satisfaction of being right. He melted into a blob of what appeared to be jelly and oozed into a gutter; he shortly made his way inside the building while Gauge remained upstairs to scout from above. he could dangerously rush in, but that didn't seem to be the best idea. He could only see the front entrance from the lip of the top of his building, all glass windows peering into the city streets. The lights in the shop were viciously bright, and he could make out about three shadows— perhaps four. He couldn't tell precisely because, from this particular angle, he couldn't see the inside of the shop entirely. The alley was too narrow to see anything significant. Not like it mattered as much Polly was already inside.