Heroes wear Capes

Chapter 11 - V for Vengeance

"It's you who's wrong. Nicole isn't the villain, you all are. She's shown me the truth about our so-called heroes, and now that I know you're one, I can't believe we were even friends in the first place."

~ Mary Thompson (Midnight)

Celeste hated going out in the daylight with her super villain costume on. She felt too exposed in the sunlight. Her white and grey tinted suit was blindingly bright when the sun reflected off of it. Not to mention it made her look too much like a superhero. Those self-obsessed egotistical heroes liked to have a name associated with the light, and thus their costumes were usually light as well. (Haven't you ever noticed how so many heroes have the word white in front of their name?) Celeste didn't like being associated with those heroes who only cared about their next publicity stunt.

So, why wear white? The answer was simple. Snow and ice weren't exactly dark things. Whenever she fought with her powers, she was able to hide in her snowstorms a lot easier than if she was in stark contrast to them. Plus, it gave her the excuse to wear the white wig that hid her raven black hair.

But, back to the point. Her contact who was going to trade in the necklace she'd stolen from the Schows wanted to meet in the late afternoon instead of their normal night schedule. It was a Sunday, so she had no real excuse to re-schedule the meeting. It's not like she had a family dinner to get to or friends to hang with.

"Artic Frost."

Her contact opened the door on the far side of the alley way. Celeste looked around for any onlookers and then dashed through the door. It was the side entrance to a comic book store in downtown. The place was a new franchise started from somewhere in Washington DC. It also happened to be a good cover for the black market super dealings of this location's manager, Scott Stone.

"So, what do you have for me today?" He asked, an eager smile on his face.

Celeste smiled and pulled out the diamond necklace, sparkling in the light. She placed it on the counter and smirked wider. "Isn't it a beauty?"

Scott was visibly impressed. "Wow, you would've thought the Schows had this thing under lock and key, it's practically priceless."

Celeste shrugged, "Maybe they do on a regular basis, but they were going to a fundraiser for the police department. Mrs. Schow had to keep her prestigious reputation up. After all, they probably won't even miss this piece. Judging by how much they pay off the department with, they probably wipe their butts in hundred dollar bills."

He laughed and picked up the necklace, "Yeah, this is your best score yet."

Celeste nodded and hid her pride. Think of how much money she'd make off of this one. Certainly enough to where she could lay off stealing for a while. She could take a small break from villainy for a couple of weeks or even months if she wanted to. The money from those diamonds would be enough to help her usual patrons, maybe even more people than normal.

"Great, when do I get my money?" Celeste asked straight to the point.

Scott shrugged. "Depends on how fast I sell these individual diamonds, but don't worry, that's never a problem." Celeste watched as he touched one of the diamonds, as if demonstrating how easy they were to sell, which they were for him. Scott was a super who could shape precious metals, meaning he could get rid of the serial number on the bigger diamonds so that they could never be tracked by the police.

(Of course this came in handy when the police were being paid off by the people you stole the necklace from.)

"Alright, I'll stop by sometime next week. I'll see you later, Scott."