"James!" a female voice yelled across the bar as behind said servery, glasses and bottles shattered.

"Sounds like someone's happy," a man said, quietly chuckling along with his three companions. He got to his feet with his half-drunk pint in hand. "What's he done this time, Earsplitter? Left the toilet seat up again?"

He turned back to his friends, laughing, and noticeably less than a second later they joined in, too, although their laughter was short-lived.

"Sit the fuck down, Johnny!" The words directed at him were spoken with such venom and distaste, and a force that he was unable to resist pushed him back into his seat.

"Someone needs to change her tampon," he muttered, though this time his friends did not laugh.

Earsplitter shot Dave, the barman, a look and he nodded to his right, to the pool room, and she strode through the throng of her fellows, in her anger not caring that she physically barged several of them out of her way. They knew better than to engage her when she was so riled, though, if they wanted to keep their eardrums intact, that is.

"Sally!" a young man, James, placed his pool cue to the table excitedly as she entered, though the look on her face quickly quelled that excitement.

"Don't you fucking Sally me," she yelled, the force behind her words pushing him backwards towards the wall, despite the fact he was certain his feet were planted firmly.

Before she was able to do any more damage, James shook violently and became encased in a block of solid ice. Even that though, was no match for Sally.

"Don't you fucking dare go all Permafrost on me, either!" Her shrill voice did exactly what she knew it would, and shattered the ice that had until moments ago engulfed him. "You shagged Amanda."

"Amanda?" he asked. "Wait, d'you mean A-Blaze?"

"Who the fuck else would I mean?" she hissed.

"I never," he protested. "Seriously, babe, who told you that?"

"She did, you fuck. She showed me the damn pictures!"

She snapped her head around as she felt a tap on her shoulder, and just about managed not to make Dave's eardrums explode. It wasn't a good idea to severely injure the man who served the Supers beer at cost and a half.

"Listen," he said, quietly. "If you two are gonna' have another domestic can you take it outside? If I have to refurbish The Citadel of Seclusion again, it just won't be the same."

"I'd keep out of it if I were you, Dave," said the guy who had been beating James at pool. "You know they'll front the damage so long as you keep the beer flowing."

"Fair enough," said Dave with a shrug. "But it's on you, Bedrock. You gotta' make sure they pay for whatever damage they cause."

"I got your back, Dave," he replied, his voice low and gravelly. "Besides, judging by the way Johnny's giggling like a fucking school girl, I'm pretty sure he had something to do with this shit."

Leaving the bickering couple to their squabble, Bedrock strode across the bar to where Johnny and his friends were finding the whole episode apparently quite amusing.

He wasn't a large man, not really, but his body was about as close to solid muscle as was possible. Very few people, even Supers, willingly picked a fight with Bedrock.

"Evening, Johnny," he said, placing the flats of his hands upon the table, sticky as it was with spilled beer and other beverages. "Something tickling you, is it?"

"Keep your nose out, Alan," said Johnny, although he did so rather quietly, quite possibly in the hope that Bedrock wouldn't hear him.

"Yeah, keep your nose out!"

Calmly, Alan turned to one of Johnny's companions with his eyebrow raised.

"Reckon you should put a leash on her, Johnny," he said, not breaking eye contact. "Snapshot here's quite likely to end up taking early retirement and spending the rest of his days talking about the good old days with my granddad."

"Oh come on, Alan," Johnny protested. "It was just a bit of fun, nothing more than that."

"What was?" Still, Alan had not averted his gaze from Snapshot. "Let me guess, you convinced A-Blaze to pose in a compromising position or two whilst Cracklepuff here took a few selfies. Then it was simple enough to superimpose my brother's body into those photos and have Amanda show them to Sally, claiming he knobbed her. How am I doing so far, Cracklepuff?"

"Erm..." Snapshot stammered as the table thudded where Johnny kicked his shins beneath it.

"Yeah, I thought as much," said Bedrock, chuckling. He then turned to Johnny, his stare enough to make the man jump. "Just because you're the flier, Aeriform, don't think I won't rip your bloody nads off if you mess with my brother like that again. Understand?"

"Y-yeah," Johnny replied. "Loud and clear, Bedrock. Sorry."

"Don't apologise to me," he said, grinning. "It's not me you gotta' worry about, nor James, but Sally? Well..."

"Phone's ringing," said Amplitude, another of Johnny's companions and sure enough, seconds later, the telephone behind the bar of The Citadel of Seclusion began to ring."

"Electron!" Alan shouted across the bar. "Turn that TV off, will you?"

The woman to whom Bedrock's shout had been directed turned her head towards the television set high up on the wall, blinked, and the machine clicked off.

"Everyone, pipe down!" Phonic yelled, his voice so loud that the entire bar was stunned into silence.

"Hello," said Dave as he answered the telephone. "Citadel of Seclusion."

Every Super in the bar turned their attention to Dave and the telephone conversation he was having, some more so than most as at least five of them – Earsplitter and Amplitude included – had super hearing as part of their package.

"Robbery, right you are... Jewellery and cash... so you want... right... OK, yeah... right..."

The call over, Dave replaced the handset to the receiver and turned back to face the Supers, all of whom were waiting with bated breath.

"Jewellers on Lower Smith Street and the bank two doors down," he said. "The police have cordoned off the whole street but they reckon there's hostages inside."

"Who'd they want, Dave?" a voice spoke up.

"Not you, Juice," he replied with a chuckle. "You tell me where there's a damn river or even a bloody pond anywhere near Lower Smith Street."

A small chuckle rippled around the bar, but most were still waiting to hear which of them the police had requested.

"Bedrock..."

"As bloody usual," Johnny muttered.

"...and Aeriform," said Dave, ignoring Johnny's interruption. "Earsplitter, too, and has anyone seen Momentum?"

"In the lavvy snorting lines most likely," said James, this getting much more of a laugh than any comment Dave had made, mostly because it was quite likely true.

"Right then... You can move pretty quickly on your ice can't you, Permafrost?" James nodded. "OK, I'll clear it with the Detective Chief Inspector but to be honest, I can't see her having issue with it."

Alan nodded, at which point Electron turned the television back on. Just because the majority of the Supers weren't required for the evening's endeavours, that didn't mean those staying home couldn't watch events as they happened.

"We happy few," said Alan with a smile as he, Sally, Johnny and James, made their way towards the door.

"Robbery?" Johnny scoffed. "Pah, piece of cake... Oh and Sally, sorry about that bit of fun we had at your expense."

"You'd best sleep in a lead case at night, Johnny, 'cos that's the only way you're going to wake up able to hear a fucking thing."

"So we're good, babe?" James asked, touching Sally's arm gently, both smiling as Johnny ensured that Bedrock stood between him and the woman almost-scorned.

"We're good," she replied, turning to him with a smile. "But I do feel the need to relieve some tension by sending a couple of blokes to the Otolaryngologist!"

Dave watched the intrepid band of heroes leave and as the door swung shut he shouted, "right you lot! Back to drinking! I've got a business to run. The Citadel of Seclusion doesn't pay for itself!"