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M7:SRT AU
The three men looked around the movie theater packed with people. The show had yet to start; the lights were still on.
"What'll we do?" JD asked, eyeing the crowd.
"We have to get everyone out of here before the bomb goes off," Vin answered.
"Let's shout that there's a bomb," JD suggested.
"I have an alternate solution." Ezra smiled, flashing his gold tooth.
"What is it?"
"Stand back." Standish moved his friends against the wall. "FIRE!" They all watched as everyone ran out screaming.
"How was that better?"
"Got them out, didn't it?"
"You know that's illegal," JD stated. "It's actually the example they cite to express the limits of our freedom of speech."
"Fine. If we survive, they can arrest us, we deserve it. Besides, I'd rather be in jail than have to face the 'wrath of Larabee'."
"What can they do to us?" JD watched as his friends started to search for the bomb. He joined in looking around the rear of the theater.
"Give us twenty years… together," Vin stated as he looked under the seats in the middle.
"I'd be stuck with you two?" Ezra sounded appalled.
"What's wrong with us?" Vin's head shot up and glared at Standish. He was clearly insulted.
"Not a thing," Ezra assured Tanner, waving him to continue in his search. "I just don't relish spending the next few decades with the two of you in a prison cell."
"It'll be a blast." JD smiled. "I'll make you a homemade shiv and sing you a song." He started humming a tuneless tune.
"Fleeing the scene is becoming more and more appealing," Ezra mumbled. He shook his head in silent wonder.
"Don't be such a Gloomy Gus," JD told his friend. "They say 'laughter is the best medicine'."
"Who is this elusive 'they'? And did you actually use the term 'Gloomy Gus'?" Ezra asked with a raised brow.
"If you stop complaining right now I'll get you a Hershey's Special Dark Bar once we're out of here," Vin called over to Ezra.
"Deal!" Standish called back. He swept back a curtain beside the giant screen and groaned as he looked down. "I found it.".
JD and Vin raced over to stand beside the ex-CIA operative. Behind one of the curtains was a timed explosive device, with enough dynamite to level the building.
"Now what?" JD asked. He eyed the bomb warily.
"I can handle this." Vin studied the explosive. "Buck taught me a few tricks."
Ezra backed away with an exaggerated step. "Somehow that doesn't reassure me."
"It's either the red or black wire." Tanner looked back and forth between the wires and the timer that was steadily counting down. "We got a fifty-fifty chance."
JD looked worried. "Not the best odds."
"Don't be an 'Ezra'," Vin snapped back.
"I must protest!" Ezra shouted. "I have been through enough of a trial without you two ruffians maligning my good name."
"That's it," Vin said, "no chocolate for you." He held out his hand for JD's Swiss army knife and cut the black wire. The timer stopped immediately after giving a small beep as if in complaint for not allowing it to finish its job.
The three men breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"At least we had plenty of time." Dunne motioned at the digital readout. "We still had ten minutes."
"That marks in seconds, Mr. Dunne," Ezra was quick to point out.
"Oh." The youngest team member got noticeably paler.
"You gonna need to go home?" Vin asked.
"Why?" Big brown eyes were directed up at the sniper.
Vin bounced his eyebrows with a smirk. "Clean shorts…"