Enigmatic: Sapphire City Supers

Chapter 10: Night at the Museum: the Escape

Now, I'd better admit something. As repugnant as I found the Super team, and of course, the work of Villains, I've always been interested in all the different crazy things that those of us with abilities can do. So what happened next was all at once weird, creepy, and fascinating to me.

Green light and energy flashed from the man's hands and branched out in thin, interconnecting lines through the fog particles, like he'd thrown a brilliant, radioactive spider's web over our heads to catch us. For a moment, the whole web was starkly illuminated, and then it faded into the slightest hint of green drifting amongst the mist.

"Oh, hell no, what is this?" I heard what I thought was Grace's voice from somewhere.

"That, my dear, is a field of energy that suspends you within it, rendering you unable to move, though obviously it hasn't affected your mouth. Call it a forcefield, if you will," the Villain said smugly.

Supers and Villains, they're all just so smug, especially the new ones.

I looked around me, and couldn't see anybody but the Villain moving. The green points of his eyes were focussed away from me, to wherever Grace was in the room, and I took the opportunity to test out a little theory. I'd noticed when the web descended that it seemed a little repelled by me, and even now the faint hint of green glow in the fog was giving me a healthy berth.

Giving another quick glance around, I tried to wiggle my fingers. To my delight, they moved as usual. I started to pull the fog in closer and thicker around me as stealthily as possible, and took the smallest step to the side. I shook my arms lightly and twisted my torso, then cracked a wicked little smile.

Bingo.

Obviously whatever he'd done, I was immune to it somehow. The thought made me feel at least as smug as he'd sounded, so I guess none of us are perfect.

While I plotted my next move, another shape appeared out of the corridor. Presumably another Villain.

He confirmed this when he opened his dumb mouth. "Aw, what is this? Trapped people, again? Come on, Electron, this place was supposed to be closed!"

"And yet, as you see, there are people here," Electron retorted sarcastically. "We're just going to have to do the job a little differently."

"This was not supposed to happen again! This is too many people." The other Villain, whom I dubbed Dopey, whined.

"My god, you are lucky you're necessary here. Let's just get on with it." Electron sounded more than a little annoyed with his partner.

Another snort came from somewhere in the room, and this time, it wasn't me. "You guys are bad at this," a voice said scornfully. Definitely Lexa.

"There'll be no comments from the peanut gallery, or I'll keep your mouths shut for you," Electron threatened.

"I'd think if you could do that, you'd have done it already," Lexa scoffed.

"Do not presume you know what I can do, and please don't push me. This isn't about you and I'd hate for it to have to be," he said in a silkily polite tone.

"Lexa, for god's sake," hissed a male voice, maybe Grant. I couldn't even tell how many people were actually still in the room.

"Whatever, weirdo," Lexa muttered, a little quieter now.

"Look," Electron started in a low voice to his partner. I doubted the others could hear it very well, since my hearing was much sharper than theirs. "We're going to have to rethink this a little. As you know, that case is protected by a specific type of energy field in the glass. I don't have enough power to keep this forcefield up and disable the protection like we had planned." The green eyes were fixed in my direction for a moment, before he looked back towards Dopey's shape. I wondered if they were talking about the amulet.