Chapter Fifteen – Rapscallion

Kevin kicked down Charlotte’s stand and leaned the scooter to the side as he disembarked. He was parked in the alley between two buildings downtown. Kevin grunted with effort as he removed two bags from the back of Charlotte. One of them had opened a little bit, and a few twenty-dollar bills were poking out. He adjusted the bag, made sure it was properly zipped closed, then headed deeper into the alley.

He wanted to bring all of the cash home, but that would be stupid. He’d learned his lesson last time, with Fabien. He didn’t want a tracker of some sort pointing the cops straight to his new place. So he walked over to a manhole, opened it up and observed the flowing water below.

He had a duffle bag sitting nearby already. He brought it closer, then started transferring bills over with quick, efficient motions. Once that was done, he riffled through the cash, looking for anything that would let someone track him. Just in case, he picked out a large magnet and pressed it against some of the bills, looking for anything metallic, but there was nothing.

Shrugging, he tossed both bags into the sewers and watched them float away.

Work done, Kevin stood up, pulling the dufflebag up and slinging it over his shoulder after making sure it was properly shut. Then he got back onto Charlotte, pulled her out of far end of the alley without a care in the world, and headed to his new home.

He’d actually changed motels yesterday, packing up all of his stuff into his bag and moving halfway across Eauclaire to a second motel closer to the centre of the city. This one he paid for in cash with the ID of some middle aged man he’d… acquired a few days earlier.

He didn’t plan on making it too easy to find him, and moving was part of that.

A bigger part was that this was closer to the middle of Eauclaire. That meant a shorter walk to get to several restaurants and places he wanted to visit, and… well, the place was just nicer. It wasn’t a five-star hotel, but the water was hotter for longer in the shower, the TV came with a better cable package, and the rooms were bigger.

Sure, it was nearly twice as expensive but, well, he wasn’t sure how many thousands he’d made today, but it was probably enough to live a comfortable life for several months, even if he splurged a bit.

It would make up for not having any sort of steady job.

Arriving at the motel, he parked Charlotte out front, checked to make sure she was still fine (he’d need to do an oil change soon, and maybe wash her up) and then he headed inside while fumbling for his keys.

He tossed the duffle onto the bed, then jumped backwards onto it, landing with an oof.

It had been a productive day. Setting up for the robbery had taken more time than the robbery itself. But it had been worth it. The truck’s guards were caught with their pants down and didn’t know what to do about a mask showing up. It was like taking candy from a baby, only the baby was an overweight middle aged guy whose knees were shaking.

Then those heroes had shown up.

Kevin’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t expecting to have to kick the butts of some children today. Or of a damned bear. Where had that thing even come from?

Sitting up on his bed, he scooted back while kicking off his boots. He grabbed a remote off the end table and flicked on the TV. Immediately, the room was filled with cartoonish screaming as some loud kid’s show started. Right, he’d been idly watching cartoons the night before.

Flicking over to the menu, he scrolled up until he found a local news channel and clicked into it. The screen changed to an image of a reporter lady in a nice dress with crows feet in the corners of her eyes. “–closure on Seventh and Fifth for the rest of the day. HRF officers haven’t given us any information as to when the road will reopen, but we were assured it would be relatively soon. Road repair crews are on the scene already.”

The camera changed to an image of the street he’d messed up earlier. The money truck had been moved, he noticed. It was deeper in the image, hitched to the back of a tow-truck. A few police cruisers were left on the scene, but it looked like the fun had finished.

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Then the channel turned to ads, and Kevin rolled his eyes. “Typical,” he muttered.

He took the opportunity to get his coat off and toss it onto a hook by the door, then he found some Ot Ockets in the room’s mini-fridge and shoved them in the microwave.

By the time it beeped, the news was going over the story again. He had the impression that his little stunt was the most exciting thing that happened this decade and they were milking it for all it was worth. Eauclaire was too damn quiet.

Still, the report moved on to an interview with a hero he vaguely recognized. Silver Fox. That guy with the shampoo and the commercial voice. He was smiling while looking between the camera and the young reporter standing next to him. “Mister Silver Fox, sir, can you tell us a little about what happened today?”

He nodded. “It’s an unfortunate incident that ended on a positive note,” he said. “The rude rapscallion Rattles showed up and ambushed a money transport. He successfully broke into it, but a brave group of local heroes appeared in time to scare him off.”

“What!” Kevin shouted. “Lying jerk, I wasn’t scared off!”

“Which hero did the saving?” the reporter asked.

“That would be the Boss, Bandit, Owlwatch, and Ursa Minor, as well as a yet unnamed new companion of theirs. I suspect she hasn’t had time to make her proper debut. Working together, they managed to hold Rattles off until the HRT arrived. The villain fled at some point near the end of the altercation, unfortunately. We’d ask that the kind people of Eauclaire pay close attention in case he makes a reappearance.”

Kevin scoffed. He couldn’t recall seeing a single HRF hero on the scene. Not if the Boss and her brats weren’t members, and he only heard sirens when he was four blocks over. Silver Fox was spinning things to make himself look good while just barely avoiding lying outright.

“Calling himself a fox was right,” he muttered to himself.

The report went on, with some cell phone footage thrown in for good measure because that kind of shaky-cam stuff was always popular.

He did like seeing himself on screen, it was good for the ego. He made note of a few things. His costume looked fine from the waist up, but the jeans he wore stuck out a bit. Maybe he could buy darker pants, and chaps to go with the rest of the leather in his look? He had the cash for it.

Then the fight itself was shown, and he found himself leaning forwards to watch it closer.

There was a girl that turned into a bear. Right, so it had been another girl. Then the one with three bodies. Or three clones? One of them disappeared when he hit her, but she reappeared further back.

The bear was teleported back too, near the end.

So, there was some trickery going on there.

He couldn’t say much about the other three. The one in the lab coat was probably a gadgeteer, but he hadn’t seen any weapons or weird gadgets come up. A non-threat? Was she even a mask? He dismissed her.

Another view from another angle showed the tall chick with the fedora chatting with Silver Fox, and while he couldn’t hear what was being said, it looked like she intimidated the old man a little.

Plus she was kinda hot. Kevin could admit to himself that he liked the look of a woman in a suit. He wasn’t sure what her gimmick was, but she didn’t seem all that strong.

The little girl in the leather jacket he wanted to dismiss too, but he’d caught her eye at some point during the fight, and… something about her worried him. Was she one of those heroes with a too-lethal power?

That happened, sometimes. Someone whose power was ‘instant body explosions’ or whatever who had to hold way, way back, to the point of being useless in any real confrontation.

He’d plan around that.

Maybe that would be his next outing? The next part in his master plan? He had enough cash to live nicely for a while. Why not use some of that while to put the fear of Rattles in the local heroes?

“See if they call me a rude rapscallion again.”

***

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