Super Hero Rhapsody: 1975

Rain sheets over Front Street as the cleanup sedan lurches. Sally phases through the chassis and hits the driver from inside, killing the engine with a hard, sudden stop.

The convoy bunches up behind it. Men in gray coats slam doors open and draw weapons, scrambling around a hardcase in the rear seat.

Devlan ducks behind a parked car and aims down the street, trying to keep the road open. The Courier is half-crouched nearby, pale and cornered by the chaos.

One gray-coat shouts toward the sedan, pointing at Sally like he has seen a ghost in uniform.

The hardcase slides onto the wet pavement between boots and gun muzzles, the convoy now exposed. If Sally takes it, she may take the next clue in the Department's pipeline with it.

Sally slips flat through the lead car's hood, vanishing into metal and engine heat like water through cracks.

Inside, she twists once, boots braced on the frame, and the car shudders as if something vital is cut loose.

The sedan lurches dead in the lane, and the gray coats behind it check their advance in a spray of rain and brake lights.

Devlan ducks lower behind cover, tracking the stunned convoy as the open hardcase skids in a wet half-circle near Sally's exit point.

Sally slips out of the dying sedan and catches the open hardcase with both hands as it skids across the rain-slick pavement. The lid jerks wider, and the case stops under her grip instead of sliding into the convoy line.

A bundle of hardware and sealed files flashes under the streetlights, still inside the case. Rain ticks off the black lining while the nearest gray coats flinch and re-form their line.

Devlan rises from cover and fires downrange, forcing the front rank to duck. The Courier stares at the open case, panic sharpening into desperate calculation.

Sally clamps the lid with one hand and yanks the hardcase into her side as gray boots splash toward her.

Sally flips the case fully open and drags the sealed files free with one swift pull, tucking them against her ribs as rain spatters the pages. Her shoulder cut stings when the folder edges brush it, but she keeps moving.

Inside the hardcase, a compact weapon rig sits under foam, along with two slim power cells and a clipped gray tag. Sally’s eyes catch the markings at once, and she spots the load-out is split for fast handoff, not storage.

Devlan’s shot cracks past the sedan, forcing the nearest gray coats to duck again. One of them lunges anyway, but Sally phases the case half a step through his reach and snaps it back against her hip.

The open case gives Sally the proof she needed, but the loose pages slap in the wind and one file corner tears loose, skittering toward the lane. The convoy wavers, still closing, as the gray coats realize she has already seen the weapons list.

Sally shoves the hardcase toward Devlan, rain flashing off the metal as it skids into his reach. At the same time, she launches herself down the lane, boots splashing hard, shoulder cut burning under her sleeve.

Devlan clamps the case against the sedan with one arm, the loose pages flapping against his coat. Sally barrels past the first gray coat, driving straight at the Gray-Coat Leader before he can reset the line.

The leader shifts to meet her, but Sally’s speed beats his aim. Her shoulder clips his arm, and his pistol jerks wide as he stumbles into the slick pavement.

One gray-coated man snatches at the scattered folder pages, but Devlan’s cover fire pins him back. The convoy line breaks in the rain, with the exposed weapon rig now out of the leader’s hands and the hardcase secure with Devlan.