War On Crime

*So I guess they see the super suspicious van drive by, at which point Artemis grabs the zipper on her backpack, flipping it around in the same motion that she unzips it. Dropping it to the ground, she withdraws her bow, clicking it into place with the press of a button as she pulls out one of her finest arrows with the other hand. She quickly stoops down to steady herself as she notches it & fires at the back wheel.*
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A"Nice to meet you too."

V"Hmph."

June stood back from Artemis and watched wide-eyed, speechless and confused.

*Amanda just stares at Artemis, mouth open slightly and hands shaking*
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*So Eve heads back to campus*

The arrow penetrates the tire, defensive measures keep the tire from popping and the van spinning out as they make their escape.

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Fast forward several hours later to a clear cloudless night.

???: "Kazam!"

A great bolt of lightning strikes down, the one struck by it takes off into the sky, like lightning.

*Eve stares at the ceiling, having had trouble sleeping all night long*
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*Cameron sleeps soundly in the hospital*
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*Kylie is likewise awake, watching Benji drink from his water bottle*
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*Amanda is also asleep*

OOC: Fine, I guess I'll do this dumb thing, even though it makes no sense & skips over everything that anyone actually needs to do.

*Grapevine is lurking about at the park, since she's most powerful where there are plants. She's sent sort of weather balloons into the atmosphere, enclosed leaf pods filled with helium & covered in sensitive flowers that can detect all sorts of radiation, pressure, vibration, etc. Using these, she can zero in on the lightning bolt's location & notice someone fleeing the scene from there. As he can most likely fly faster than her, she tries to calculate a route at which she can intercept him with her new plant jet pack. That's right, plant jet pack.*

Th"Never mind Eve for now, all we can do is monitor her actions carefully. I've just noticed someone taking flight from the direction of that lightning strike."

A"Specter sees it too. She's following through the alleys, taking note of what he's doing."

Th"Roger that. These hands-free ear pieces were a wise investment. How many do we have?"

A"Well, with the money the 3 of us pooled together, I got 1 for each of us, plus extras for Taiyo & Ven. Ven says to call if you need her, by the way."

*Thiera rogers that again before springing into the air & taking off with her new plant jet pack.*
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*Artemis is just about to turn in when she also spots this, courtesy of her very great eye sight. Not wanting to awaken anyone, she heads off in that direction alone. When she's closer, she'll probably climb to a roof top.*

June was at home, approaching being drunk, watching Netflix.

Frost Hound and Strong Arm make their way through the city, trying to get to the location of the lightning strike unless something else comes up, but outside of it coming from further north of their neighborhood, there's not much to go on.

Other than some dude in a red and white outfit flying damn fast away from the direction the lightning bolt struck.

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In two ends of the city, in areas controlled by the Russians, a pair of vans pulls up outside of a derelict building that was once apartment buildings.

From the vans emerge some young adults, some nervous, some excited and a group of people in body armor like they're ready to rob Fort Knox.

Leading one group is a redhaired woman who resolved to forgo the helmet and gear that wasn't a large knife or a revolver that could be passed as a blunderbuss.

Candice: "Standard procedure, leave no heads or hands."

OOC: I already said what my characters were doing & was given no new information. Literally nothing has changed.

*Eve gets out of bed, putting on a dark hoody, pants, and sneakers. She then takes a silver mask out from under her bed, and heads down stairs. Once at the front door, Eve disables the house alarm, then heads out, shutting the door behind her. She then starts heading toward Jin's after putting the mask on*
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*Amanda wakes up, rubs her eyes, and gets out her phone, texting Artemis and June*

R you awake?

Theoretically.

"On patrol. Man in the sky."

Being in respectable or at least decent neighborhoods, none of them are aware of the bloody shoot outs going on elsewhere in the city which is probably for the best.

Seeing a blinding white kite, Azuma and Mimiru stop because why the hell is someone flying a kite at some odd time in the evening?

Wait what?! Where are you, Art?
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*Eve continues towards Jin's*

*Artemis sends her location. There's still not really anything that any of the others can do except continue to pursue.*

As Thiera can't see them from all the way up on her high horse, they continue on their way, teleporting down to the street level where things tend to happen.

The one Thiera was following for no real reason goes down to ground level, either because they spotted her or spotted something else.

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Unless she lives in a trailer which wouldn't surprise me, I bet Jin's house hasn't gone anywhere. Unless I decide to burn it down which I just might.

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Commissioner Morrison walks down the street to an all-night grocery store a little ways from his apartment. Not the best neighborhood, but he makes due. Some say he might be better off if he kicked in with the mob, but he knows better than that.

Two officers were assaulted in their homes, something he has been doing his damndest to keep quiet. Dirty or not, they were still cops. Part of him regrets working with Inquiry.

He walks past a liquor store, running his eyes over the rigid features of the hunk of metal that used to be a friendly merchant, wondering how many men he had to kill just to stay in business.

His cigar does its thing and he coughs up a load of the brown stuff, his head light and spots dancing before his eyes. Amazing how his wife managed to convince him to not smoke in his own home. Then he sucks it again.

Suddenly the hair bristles on the back of his neck. He hears a girlish giggle and the cold, oiled sound of a gun being cocked behind him.

He turns around to see the face of a hardened killer who's not even old enough to shave.

I think of Sarah. The rest is easy.

*Thiera follows, cupping her hands around her eyes like binoculars. Only in her case, a kind of membrane grows over the openings in her curled fists, creating actual binoculars. Between that & her surveillance system, she's pretty confident that she'll spy any potential trap. At this point, the sudden disappearance of Strong Arm & Cold Doggie affects her probes enough that vines at the back of her neck start wriggling to signal the directions of the apparent motion. She presumably locates them upon glancing around, & also sees Artemis & Luna approaching them.*
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*Artemis spots those 2, but darts behind the corner of the building. Her skillset is not built for direct confrontations. Luna approaches them from the other end, but of course recognizes them, & approaches.*

"Are you...tracking the flying mutant?"
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*In addition to everything else she's keeping track of, Aroma tries to find out if there's anything known about flying mutants who may or may not be able to control lightning.*

*Eve sneaks around the house, quickly peeking in windows of rooms that Jin might be in*
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You're really insane. You know that, right?

*Artemis turns the flash & shutter off, hoping she can take a picture by the ambient lighting alone. She then leans around the building, snaps a shot, & responds to Amanda with the picture & a message.*

Spotted 3 other vigilantes in an alley.

Thiera sees another flash of lightning. Assuming she sees what's going on in that area, it's a fight.

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Azuma: "Yeah, but....hold on."

He teleports away to where Artemis is skulking about.

Azuma: "Can I help you?"

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There's no encyclepedia of Mutants and anything pertaining to lightning amounts to blog posts from people going on about seeing lightning on nights where there is no clouds or any reason for there to be lightning.

*Artemis quickly shifts into a kind of boxing stance. Unlike Specter, he can tell she's female even though she tries to make her voice sound gruff.*

"You can back off!"

*When she hears Specter mention Grapevine's name, she kind of jerks with surprise. She almost looks back, but catches herself.*

"...You know Grapevine?"
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"We are following it as well. Grapevine is in the sky, & of course, Aromatic Grass is coordinating us wirelessly. She says that the mutant is in a fight & throws lightning. She's going in, so we should go back her up."
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"Our target is engaged in battle at [location] & appears to have electrokinetic abilities. I will be engaging now. Please hurry."

*She swoops in, shooting a vine into the ground to serve as a ground wire while the plants of her costume secrete a rubbery substance to serve as insulation.*

Azuma: "In a way, but her sidekick is much closer than we are. Now when did it become our job to track down Mutants? They ain't hurling lightning at the city, so they're not our problem."

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She sees a dude in a white, red, and gold suit, the hood on his white cape pulled down showing he has dark hair and the suit being tight as superhero costumes often are shows he's goddamn huge.

He's fighting a handful of Tyranno Boys, their weapons, various knives, a couple handguns, and an assault rifle scattered about. A couple are scatter on the ground, groaning and in a lot of pain.

One swings a bottle at him only to take a shot to the chest that sends them back three feet.

Situation under control.

L"We don't know WHAT he's doing. We should at least make sure he's no threat, & if he IS hostile, Grapevine may need help. It's not like it would take you very long to get us over there."

A"I would like to meet Grapevine."

L"Good. Saves us the trouble of having to chase YOU across the city too."
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*Thiera lands, wanting to make sure that this is on the up & up. Before making her presence known, she checks to make sure no one is in danger of a life threatening injury, such as a concussion.*

Th"So--what do you do after you have beaten them silly?"

Azuma: "If I knew what street he was on, it wouldn't. But I don't, so it would."

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Mostly fractures and breaks. They should live, but they won't be doing bad guy things for awhile.

???: "Move on to the next scene."

And he takes flight, to the next scene.