Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
When the flash of light subsided as quickly as it had formed, Beth Harper was gone and Sapphire Angel stood in her place. The two women were one and the same, but nobody would have guessed it by their appearances.
Beth Harper had been wearing a black sweater with jeans slid into high leather boots, underneath a long black coat, and she had worn her blond hair pulled up onto her head. Sapphire Angel stood in her shimmering blue and white costume, with only her thin tights and short white skirt protecting her supermodel legs from the crisp Colorado air. Her long hair dangled past her shoulders and glimmered in the morning light.
But it was more than her attire or hair that changed Beth Harper's appearance. Beth Harper was beautiful, but Sapphire Angel exuded an almost otherworldly radiance. It was as if her presence was a magnet, attracting the eyes of the universe to her.
Instead of retracing her steps out the door of the stairwell, the heroine darted up the steps, exiting the stairwell one level above where she had entered. Now she looked down the sloping deck of the garage at Eric's car, which stood between her and the men. Mountains loomed in the distance behind them, visible out the open sides of the garage. They were trying to force the lock of Eric's car, and didn't raise their heads to look over the car in her direction.
She could see two of them over the roof of the car, but the third man was so short he was only visible through the car's windows. The tallest of the three hunched over the lock, the soft breeze tousling his unruly blond hair.
Sapphire Angel sprinted down the slope of the deck, leapt as she approached the men, and touched down on the roof of Eric's car, flexing her knees as she landed. The men's heads jerked up at the sound and the movement, and their eyes went wide. They all stepped back against the car in the adjacent spot.
"What the f — " the short one muttered.
"You were supposed to be keeping watch," the tall blond man snapped without taking his eyes off of the knockout blond standing over them.
"Lose your keys, boys?" Sapphire Angel said, putting one hand onto a cocked hip as she raised an eyebrow.
"Sapphire Angel!" the third man exclaimed. He had jet black hair atop a face with a ruddy complexion. "What are you doing out here?"
"Even a lady like me needs to travel sometimes," she replied with a playful grin. "And when I do, I like to get my exercise by patrolling for creeps like you."
"We... yeah, we lost our keys," the blond man said. "Or, I mean, Luke here did. Ain't that right, Luke?"
"Damnit, Bernie, don't use my real name!" the short man, Luke, snapped, eliciting a smile from the superheroine.
"Luke, Bernie, and — what's your name?" Sapphire Angel asked, turning to the man with the jet black hair.
"Darin," he said. "I mean, no, it's... ah, shit. Yeah, it's Darin." He hung his head when he finished, but only for a moment before turning his gaze back up at the angelic vision standing above him.
"Luke, Bernie, and Darin," Sapphire Angel said. "I'm sure you're nice guys, but you're making bad choices today. So I need to know what you're doing breaking into this car." She finished by spreading her legs and standing with her hands on her hips.
The three men exchanged glances before Bernie took a slight step forward.
"We were..." Bernie began, before whipping his arm forward and tossing his lock pick tool toward Sapphire Angel. As she bobbed to the side, it sailed past her, clattering into another car as the three men turned and ran, sprinting between the two parked cars toward the open deck.
Sapphire Angel leapt, somersaulting over the men, before twisting in the air and landing on her feet near the end of the two parked cars, facing them and blocking their path. The three men skidded to a stop and stood in a tight cluster as she stared at them, again standing with her hands on her hips.
"Oh, boys," she said, shaking her head. "What were you thinking? The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. How about you get smart and give up now?"
"Argghhhhhh!" Luke roared, lowering his shoulder and charging the superheroine.
Sapphire Angel hopped and kicked, connecting the toe of her boot under his chin and stopping him cold. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground. The heroine didn't wait for the other two to move, darting to the gap between them faster than they could process, and bending on one knee to deliver karate chops to the back of their closest knees. Bernie and Darin each collapsed to a knee.
Sapphire Angel stood, grabbing each of them from behind in separate choke holds, with her right arm wrapped around Bernie's throat, and her left around Darin's.
The two men flailed their arms, swinging wildly as they tried to dislodge the superheroine's hold, but their efforts were futile. In their current position, they couldn't get any power behind their blows. After expending all their effort, their arms fell to their sides and their bodies sagged.
Sapphire Angel gave each of them another squeeze for good measure as she forced them between the cars to the open area of the parking deck. She toppled them forward with a push, and both men fell to the ground. The two men groaned and looked up at the heroine. The sun cast light through the open-air side of the deck, forming a halo around her. The blond bombshell gave a disappointed shake of her head and a long sigh.
"We've wasted enough time now," she said, lowering herself with a crouch to reach the men's level. "Now it's time for you to answer my questions."
"What... what questions?" Bernie moaned.
"Why were you breaking into that car?"
"We... we don't know."
"You were breaking into a car, and you don't know why?" she asked. "Somehow I find that hard to believe."
"No, really," Bernie protested. "He just said to break in, take whatever we found, and then he'd get in touch with us later and double what he paid us."
"He? Who's he?"
"Just some big dude who said he was in a gang."
"Gang? You have gangs in this town?"
"I never heard of any, but if you saw this guy, you'd believe it. Big dude. He told us not to ask questions, and said not to double cross him or we'd pay the price."
"What else did he say?" she asked. "Did he say how he'd get in touch with you?"
"No, he said he'd find us. I swear, that's — "
A woman's scream interrupted Bernie's answer. Sapphire Angel swiveled her head to see Luke moving at the rear of a car five spaces away, his arms locked around a woman from behind. Sapphire Angel tensed at the woman's terrible timing. Somehow the rotund man had recovered and tried to slip away, just as the woman returned to her car, presenting him with an opportunity. She looked to about forty and wore a light blue sweatsuit. Her face showed a strange mix of terror and confusion as her eyes darted between the men on the ground and Sapphire Angel.
"Let them go, Sapphire Angel!" Luke yelled.
Sapphire Angel figured he wouldn't believe her if she told him she might have let them go, if they gave her the information she needed. It all came down to whether their deeds — breaking into Eric's car — might prod the local police into action. But letting them go was no longer an option. The heroine rose from her crouch, turning to face Luke.
"Don't be stupid, Luke," she said, holding out a hand and taking a step toward him.
Luke dragged the woman back between the cars, toward the edge of the parking deck. Sapphire Angel kept coming. Before the heroine could act, the other woman screamed in fury, wrenched her arms free of Luke, and stumbled away from him. He lunged for her and the two grappled, pushing and slapping, backing into the low wall at the edge of the deck. Sapphire Angel darted forward, but watched in horror as the woman flipped over the wall and disappeared, dropping into the open air with a scream.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
CJ this chapter has everything I love about R angel, strength, bit of martial arts, power stance and humour I love it
Awww, yeah! Another action scene.....aIways Iooking forward to moments Iike these! She definiteIy showed them.....and it amused me how they aII just GAVE them aII their names with Sapphire bareIy even having to do anything.
That random woman (for now, at Ieast; maybe she might turn out to be a pretty major character Iater) couIdn’t have shown up at a worse time, though.....what I wouId’ve done was bring Luke cIoser to where Bernie and Darin were brought down after he was subdued, so that she couId keep an eye on aII three of them during questioning.
I did a doubIe-take at that scene; I aIready thought it was amazing, and then I went back and reaIized she started the confrontation WHILE on the roof of Eric’s car. I onIy regret that I can give this one vote at maximum.
Did the woman commit suicide?! We were on the third fIoor, right? Beth entered the third fIoor stairweII, transformed, briefIy went up to the fourth fIoor, and then Ieapt back down and attacked from there. For some reason, I initiaIIy thought everyone was on the FIRST fIoor. And then I was Iike.....if the woman was reaIIy Iooking to take herseIf out, probabIy not the best pIace to do it. xD