War On Crime

<Come now, you have nothing to fear from me.>

*Eve lowers her voice and bends towards Aroma*

<(I'd actually love to give your friend a hand with her...work.)>
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*It is on, but muted. Kylie starts making herself a sandwich while Benji paws at the tv*

The bus takes a different route, traffic being rerouted by police. The driver listens to their radio.

Jack: "What's wrong?"

Driver: "Wyatt Wilson is engaged in combat with the Mutant Grapevine."

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She's still hanging around because living in a derilect warehouse offers nothing else. Luna's paranoia is only enhanced by her being a derp.

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As she's jumping to the roof on fucking moonshoes, Deathstrike just double taps the trigger to his assault rifle, firing six rounds at her.

Back in the van, Ravage is set to fuck Thiera up, a pair of what could be camera drones flying from the van's sunroof to the roof Thiera is on. Although rather than cameras, they're carrying a few pounds of explosives.

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Jin's bus is also rerouted by police, probably furthering her bad mood. The driver's radio states heavily armed assailants are engaged in combat with the Mutant Grapevine.

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Then she can't hear the current development. Assuming subtitles are on, she can read it.

*Should any of those rounds actually hit her, they'll have to punch through the equivalent of inflating steel fiber armor. With one hand, Thiera fires at Deathstrike with one of her favorite tricks--seeds that release pollen, which cause plants to grow in the joints of armor & weapons. Spotting the drones, she fires some of the leaves at them with her other hand, leaves which are basically sheets of aerodynamic carbon steel.*
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"Fine, don't answer me, Grapevine is on her way anyway."

*She places a call.*

<Hello! You have reached Grapevine. My apologies, but I am unable to answer the phone at the moment. Please leave-->

*Annoyed, Luna ends the call & looks at a news feed.*
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*Aroma leans back, looking perturbed.*

"I don't know what you've heard, but we're not like that. She's straight and does lab work, I'm seeing someone and sell knitting."

Grimm looked outside of the bus for signs of the clash.

Jin similarly tried to spy any sign of the fight out of the windows, though considerably more conflicted than Grimm.

T*Now Eve is confused*

<Wait...what? I'm not sure what your respective sexualities and relationship statues have to do with anything.>

*Eve pauses for a moment*

<Not that I'm prejudiced or anything. Look, I know Thiera is Grapevine.>

*She says the last part very quitely*

Neither patron sees anything as the police have a several block area blocked off.

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Luna is now in the know that Grapevine ditched her to be attacked by heavily armed assailants.

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Where the bullets impacted begins to weaken as like how Arrow!Deadshot soaks his bullets in poison, Deathstrike had soaked his in herbicide.

In a display of his Empowered Badass Normal status, Deathstrike rolls to avoid the seeds, firing more rounds at her from a crouching position.

The drones go explode whether from the leaves or having been detonated, shrapnel and fire spraying every which way. The shrapnel may not pierce her armor, but the fire comes from a concoction consisting of herbicide and napalm.

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Miranda and Mr. Sells pass through multiple cellblocks, Raptor growling as he peers through the window of his cell, the guard standing outside telling him to settle down.

Mr. Sells: "What do you think of that one? Couldn't hurt to have a little young blood on the squad."

Miranda glares daggers at him, unamused by his shenanigans.

"Shit!"

*She rushes out, though well aware that she'll probably never get there in time to help.*
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*She fucking sprays it with water & backs up out of that asshole's line of fire. She also directs the pollen to swirl around him, aiming to cut off any region of escape. Having realized that her plants are being poisoned, she sets to work immunizing them.*
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"Nu-uh. Prove it."

Eve:<If she's not then why are you acting so suspiciously?>

A pair of SWAT vans pass Jin's bus. Having been rerouted, hopefully she can tell if she's close to home.

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This is where the Lunacycle would come in handy. And not burning as many bridges as possible.

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The herbicide begins to counteract her own adaptations. Also Deathstrike chucks a grenade up on the roof.

In the van, a police scanner goes off saying a tactical division is en route to the scene, ETA ten minutes. Ravage radios Deathstrike to inform him and preps another pair of drones.

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They stop at a max security cell, a redheaded man in his prison jumpsuit is laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

Miranda: "Anthony "Boomer" Hargrove, it's been awhile."

The guards, Miranda, and Mr. Sells cringe when he speaks in his thick barely understandable Australian accent.

Anthony: "Oi, what the fuck do you want, Miranda? Have you not busted my ass enough as is after that Peru job? Thse fucking bugs are still crawling around in my bloodstream and being all touchy feely with my insides!"

Miranda: "You're being enlisted again."

Anthony: "Why the fuck would I want to join your Contingency Squad again?"

Miranda: "Different incentive. For every field op completed as per order, an undetermined amount of time will be taken off your sentence."

Anthony: "Is that so?"

Jin wasn't quite home yet but got off the bus anyway, deciding to jog the rest of the way at a normal human pace with her eyes out for signs of the conflict spilling out of the police cordon.

Grimm grumbled about the city being awful and stopped looking out the window.

"I'm not acting suspiciously, you are."
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*She figures she'll be faster if she goes across the rooftops, so she looks for a fire escape along her way.*
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*Sensing that these things are made of plant cells, for the time being, she just tells them to fuck off. Having bigger fish to fry, she launches a trio of leaves to surround the grenade & contain the explosion.*

<I'm not the one who freaked out when someone came over to talk to them at an event!>

She cannot. But she can see that there are other blockades as if a wide area has been closed off.

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For once, she is out of luck as none of the warehouses have fire escapes.

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Thiera gets to lay her eyes on the gates of Hell opening before her in the way of a cloud of white phosphorus.

In the van, Ravage tosses a sphere out the sunroof towards the oncoming SWAT team. The sphere explodes, littering the street with spikes which rip the vans tires apart and they up and crash.

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Due to being muted and who knows if there are subtitles, Kylie may be out of luck for when the broadcast reveals the name of the assailant attacking Grapevine as Wyatt Wilson.

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Miranda: "Indeed."

Anthony: "What are the chances of meeting Floyd Dower?"

Miranda: "Unknown."

Guard: "Ma'am, are you certain you want someone like Hargrove in your facility?"

Miranda: "I am. I have already discussed and recieved approval for transfer from the administration and warden. We have a transport waiting for him."

Mr. Sells: "And a respectable escort."

Miranda: "Explain further."

Mr. Sells: "Your phone will be ringing in six seconds."

As foretold, Miranda's phone rings, a look of horror appearing on her face upon hearing the news.

Jin kept on going.

Grimm returned to a state of brooding.

*The first thing Thiera does is release the genes of Raptor she has stored, greatly accelerating the rate at which her plants adapt. Thiera's leaves swell as they would if blocking bullets, their outsides charring, making them harder to burn through. She also sends huntite & water molecules to the surface of the plants, increasing their fire retardation. Once she's protected from the flames, she calls upon the pollen & herbicides, bidding them to swirl around the alley & take on paralyzing properties.*
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*So she keeps going until she either gets there or spots a fire escape.*
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"The tour is over, I was just eating lunch before my next class! I wasn't expecting strangers to talk to me!"

*They are on but Kylie doesn't really care*
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Eve:<Then maybe you choose the wrong job. Tour guides have to talk to strangers! Anyway, my point still stands.>

Whether she gets home or not, I don't know. She's probably in a heap of trouble with her parents though.

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Won't find a fire escape and she's on foot and across town. People are probably laughing at her as they pass on the freeway.

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From the van, Ravage open fires on the SWAT team as they pull themselves together from the wreck. Bad things are happening all around.

Azuma as Frost Hound teleports in.

Azuma: "Tv said you were having some trouble."

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Aroma gets a text from Taiyo saying Thiera's in trouble.

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Miranda: "We're moving out."

The guards open the cell door and begin cuffing him. Wrists, ankles, bag over his hands, everything short of full body restraints.

"You came to help me arrest this maniac? I appreciate it."

*She closes her hands together, causing the cloud of paralyzing toxins to converge on that asshole.*
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*She ignores them & keeps running.*
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"Thiera said that it would be a fun way to receive some extra credits. Now please, I have a class to get to and a message to answer."

*She stands up, putting her computer away.*

Eve:<Going off to help Thiera, huh?>

*She stands up as well*

She'll be exhausted before she gets halfway to anywhere. This is where having a Spookmobile would come in handy. I'm gonna keep calling her Spook.

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Air filter in the mask as she may have guessed last time she tried that, but her observational skills are lacking having been on a roof and out of sight since the beginning.

Azuma: "I don't even know what you're doing. Also what the hell is that?"

Another drone comes flying on up from the van. Probably another one like the first two, or maybe it'll just blow up without any of the fancypants poison, shredding them with bits of steel.

*Once he's covered in paralyzing pollen, Thiera causes it to coalesce into sharp, spiny seeds.*

"That's a drone, likely outfitted with a bomb."

*She swings her hand at it, causing a trio of shock absorbing leaves to consume it.*
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"She isn't in my next class. Good day."

*Once her stuff is all packed up, Aroma scurries off, checking her message.*

*Eve walks back to her parents, eyes glazed over*

Damn it. I probably put us all in danger.

Eve:<Hey mom, can we go check out some labs again?>

*Dr Tantus shrugs and Eve follows after Aroma but far enough behind that Aroma won't notice*

Azuma: "Oh, is that all?"

Azuma grabs Thiera and teleports her to the roof across the alley and hits the deck, dragging her down with him. The drone explodes, shrapnel shredding the leaves.

Azuma: "And that thing came from where?"

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Some dude walking in front of Aroma, totally dressed for mid to late fall rather than I think it's summer totally just falls over, maybe from heat exhaustion. Or maybe he's dead.

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The bus pulls up to Clanestein, medical staff hauling the Arclight recruits off the bus and into the facility.

Jack: "Prep Grimm's new living quarters while he's in the infirmary. I don't want his new roommate to be shocked by the sudden change of events."

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Back at Arclight, Jeremiah enters an interview room, brief case in hand.

It looks more like an interrogation room with a lone table and set of chairs in the center and nothing else. In one chair is a patient, a dark haired man in grey sweats and shirt wearing slippers.

Jeremiah: "Good afternoon, Mr. Harper. How are you today?"

Mr. Harper: "How do you think? I'm locked up with killers and lunatics across the hall from....how does the story go, it was your great grandfathers cell?"

Jeremiah: "Quite. You said something earlier during my giving a tour of the facility to some people from Clanstein about how God doesn't exist here and so forth. Do you believe that your being here means God has turned his back on you and the other patients of this facility?"

Mr. Harper: "Yes. You keep a walking viral outbreak in the same ward as those who are only two steps away from being in Schwarzstein and you think God would allow for something so reckless?"

Jeremiah: "It is a sad fact that this facility is not as sophisticated as I would like it to be, but that has little to do with God. Now then, I want to try something new for today's session."

Jeremiah puts the brief case on the table and opens it up taking out some macabre mask a looking like it was made from a burlap sap with a hole cut in it and partially sown back together as if to resemble teeth. It also features air filters like a gas mask protruding from the sides and glossed over milky white eyes.

Jeremiah: "I want you to forget about God, Pale Man, and the asylum in general. I just want you to focus on Creeper. Probably not very scary to you, but some of the other patients can't stand it."

Mr. Harper: "What, are the lunatics running the asylum now? You're as crazy as the rest of your family."

Jeremiah puts the mask on and presses a button inside the briefcase. Gas fills the room and Mr. Harper begins screaming uncontrollably, Creepers warped and gargled voice barely audible.

Creeper: "They scream, and they cry. Much as you're doing now."

"Thank you. I presume that these drones are being launched by an accomplice who remained in the unmarked, dark blue van that this lunatic arrived in."

*She generates her periscope & stretches it out to the edge of the rooftop to see if her carbonized, super fast growing needles were able to pierce Dickstroke's armor & knock him out.*
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*Presuming Aroma saw the message, she runs up to this guy, asking if he's okay. If he doesn't respond, she checks his pulse, unless she sees some kind of horrible skin condition of unknown origin.*

*Dr Tantus sees the man and runs over, getting out her phone*

<Miss, what is the number for campus police?!>

*Eve tries to avoid being seen by standing a bit away*