Jet helped me down first, and I lit the area and checked it out before allowing him to set me down and go back for Hurricane. While I waited for them to catch up, I noticed this particular room was empty. Like, completely devoid of anything but a door. There was no furniture, there wasn’t a lightbulb in the socket, and there were no shelves or anything hung on the walls. Moving to investigate the walls more closely revealed what seemed to be a hidden door opposite the regular door. I looked around again, shifting my fireball as much as I could to see if there were any reflections from any cameras anywhere. I saw none, but I couldn’t trust that meant there were no cameras. Jet and Hurricane landed behind me, and I turned to signal them to be quiet. They moved over closer.

“What’s up?” Hurricane whispered.

“There’s a hidden door here, and I’m not sure there are any cameras in this room. If this is a blind spot… What if he doesn’t know about the hidden door? What if it’s a safe spot?” Jet and Hurricane traded looks.

“I hope you don’t think that room is perfectly safe. I know where you went, even if I can’t see you in there.” Our rogue wasn’t about to leave us with any doubt. “There is nowhere in this hotel you can rest, and I know your only two possible escape routes from there. You take the door and enjoy more of my wonderful traps, or you go back upstairs and face my wonderful traps. Don’t deny the people the fun of watching you as you try to puzzle it out, make your choice.”

“I choose option C,” I muttered, moving and carefully trying to open the hidden door. It slid open easily, not sealed shut just designed in a way to make it hard to notice unless you were right on it. The other two slipped in the room, and I followed and carefully shut the door back behind us.

The hidden room was clearly some sort of room to hide people, as there were makeshift beds and old covers set up in here. We all breathed a sigh of relief and moved as far from the door as we could.

“This at least might give us a little time to plot,” Jet pointed out. “I’m sure he’ll figure it out at some point, but it’s time we have to think and plan.”

“Well… If this room is hidden from him, how many others might there be?” Hurricane asked. “We have an advantage with this knowledge.”

“We do… Let me try the communicator, maybe the signal blocker doesn’t go over this part,” I pointed out, taking out the communicator and pushing the button. “Technix? Can you hear me?”

There was silence on the other end for several seconds, then, faintly, “Flare? Did you find a spot that wasn’t blocked? The signal sounds faint, but I’ve been removed from the scene, so it could just be distance.”

“Yeah, we found a hidden room. I don’t think our rogue knows about it, but I also don’t know if we can escape from this spot.”

“We’ve got all the heroes and villains working on a rescue plan. Apparently, this rogue works with Kyrans on occasion, when they swing through the solar system. It’s some kind of metal from their world, we don’t know much about it yet. Valiant is working on finding any scientists who know enough about it to tell us how to get through it.”

“Has anyone tried melting it yet?” Hurricane asked. “Do we have any idea the melting point?”

“Not yet. The fire villains are concerned if they try it and it works, they could accidentally start a fire in the building, which could completely defeat the purpose of trying to get in and get you three out unless we can coordinate where you three would be when we tried.”

“I can try melting it from inside, when we get back to a point where we can safely do so. The room we were in was a ticking time bomb before that robot got in and killed us, I’m sure,” I sighed.

“Flare, can you lot break through the roof of that room and get out that way? If it’s level with the rest of the basement, but outside his shield, that might be the best way to escape,” came a different voice through the communicator. It was Valiant.

“We can try. Jet?” I looked at him, and Jet was already flying at ceiling level and investigating it.

“Judging by where the window would have been on that room, we should be on the outside of it, yes… How thick is that metal sheet?”

“Only a few inches,” Technix answered.

“Then it won’t have extended enough to block anything… Hurricane? Thoughts?”

“I think the room is stable enough that you could safely break through, especially if Flare and I back into the previous room so we won’t get taken out by debris. Then, even if the door gets blocked, you’d be able to clear it pretty quickly.”

“There are other heroes on standby outside, they will also help,” Valiant assured us. “Alright, girls, get back to the previous room. Jet, once they’re clear of it, go ahead and try to break through.” I handed Jet the coms and went back through to the other room with Hurricane, closing the door carefully behind us. New sounds came to me above us, indicating that the robot was indeed working on ramming its way through the door. Perhaps it couldn’t hold as much ammo as I expected it could, with the size of it.

That noise was quickly replaced with the sound of Jet hammering through the ceiling of the hidden room. It had been made of concrete, which didn’t tend to stand a chance against Jet. “What is that noise? What are you foolish heroes trying to do, tunnel through the basement wall?” The rogue asked angrily.

“Guess you’re gonna find out!” I called back over the racket, before there were two loud crashing noises, one after the other. Jet opened the door as I heard the robot heading our way, pulling the two of us into what remained of the hidden room and shutting the door back quickly. Two other flying heroes had moved down the help clear the path a bit, then helped Jet get us out of the mess quickly. A cheer went up around us and I sighed, looking at the crowd of heroes and citizens around us.

“This isn’t over!” Came a thunderous voice from a loudspeaker on top of the hotel behind us, making those of us closes to the building flinch as the metal retracted back up the building. “I will destroy my enemies, regardless of this setback! You can’t escape me forever!” Jet Force and Hurricane flinched again and quickly stepped away from the building. I didn’t, facing it and standing straight and proud.

“You better hope you aren’t where we can easily track you, rogue, because your time running amok is limited!” I called easily. Admittedly, I was a bit more afraid of this guy than I sounded like I was, but I had just been in what had been intended as a death trap. That would scare anyone, especially a young adult early in their career, hero or not. “You are now on the Association’s radar, it’s only a matter of time before one of us finds and apprehends you!”

“Big talk from some little orphan girl that’s only going to burn out in the long run,” The voice retorted. “You still aren’t even sure which of you three I wanted in my trap, are you? Could be you I’m targeting, couldn’t it? Or one of your little friends there, they wonder cousins. Perhaps I’m lying and just trying to psych you out, perhaps none of you were my direct targets. But go on, show your city you aren’t as afraid of me as your teammates there, recoiling in fear from me. Sheer luck got you out of my traps today.”

Someone put a hand on my shoulder and I looked. It was Thorn, another platinum hero that looked out for the younger ones. “Well said, Flare. And good work, leading your team out of there. Come on, let the platinums and golds search the building while you three come and debrief.”

“Of course, Thorn,” I agreed, turning and walking with her. Jet and Hurricane were already a distance from the building, looking back over their shoulders at it every once in a while and clearly a bit freaked out.