Winter wonderland

The snowfall fell down in fluttering, fleeting flakes. It had been falling in this density for hours now, ever since the morning and creating a thick blanket that covered the streets of the city of Chicago; whipped about by its harsh winds. Perfect weather for hot food, or in his case hot pizza. Warmth nipping at the roof of his mouth but not quite causing irritation. Superpowers in hindsight made simple matters much easier to deal with, granted his were perhaps one of the more obviously useful ones. ”Hey, earth to Alex.” Aaron snapped at him, literally snapping his fingers in front of his face as the speedster blinked a couple of times and turned towards the shorter male.

He looked around confused for a few seconds, before turning his attention back to his two friend, one of which seemed slightly annoyed with his lack of ability to pay attention.”Oh...were you saying something?” Alex asked with a faint smile, wondering what Aaron had been trying to get across while Rob looked as pleasantly quiet as usual while snacking on his slice of pizza, which consisted only of cheese and the sauce.

Aaron rolled his eyes, sipping on the transparent straw sticking out of his cola. ”Well, I was asking about your boring dating life but I guess I was right about the boring part.” He jabbed teasingly, Alex furrowing his brows in an unamused fashion. This was followed by a light kick under the table, and Aaron letting out a pained ouch.

”At least I don’t flirt with anything that has a pulse.” He shot back, after swallowing the food he had been chewing over.

”Uh huh. You just get all red faced and act like a total spazz.” He returned fire, also literally doing so by launching a wad of spit laden paper in his direction. Easily deflected by a motion, though that just lead to the wad sticking to the back of his hand.

”Eugh, gross.” Alex grumbled, brushing it off and shoveling a large section of food into his mouth. Unfortunately his little outing with friends involving warm pizza, and people being spit on was interrupted by his phone vibrating like crazy. Removing it from his pocket, his eyes scanned over the small alert and sighed deeply. ”Sorry guys, seems like parents want me for something.” He frowned, letting the  act of being disappointed flow over him. After a while deceiving his friends came much easier than it would have.

”Wow dude, aren’t you like an adult or whatever? Should let the parents control your life forever.” Aaron dismissed with a smirk, leaning back on his chair, Rob adjusting his thick woolen scarf to cover his neck despite the place being warmed.

Standing up and sliding a few dollars across the table, he sighed. ”Not all of us have rich family members funding our places. Just gotta do what I gotta do.” He shrugged, reaching down and pulling up the large backpack he carried around. Slinging it over his back and stepping out into the cold, muscles spamming briefly from shivering.

Alex hated the cold.

Still, if there was a heroic emergency that Cypher spotted out then he would be more than happy to check it out. It was the duty of a hero to help people, even if that meant his personal life would have to suffer a little to do so.

Snow crunched under his shoes, each step eliciting a sound that was not lost within the silence of the snow fall, save for the loud wind that came about. Stepping into his truck, Alex drove it far enough from the pizza parlor that his friends were likely following him. Leaving it in a parking lot, he stepped out and in a flash changed into his little super suit. Luckily it kept heat in, otherwise he would have been rather uncomfortable in this little heroic escapade of his.

Sliding a small lens over his left eye he let the small HUD spread out before him, giving a rough estimate from where a silent alarm had been tripped. Of course the police would come to investigate, but if he had the chance it would already have been dealt with. So in a burst of speed he was off, streaking through the snow-lined streets and sidewalks, tossing up a good bit of snow in his wake as he began his usual heroic deal. Everything blurred around him like a white landscape until he found himself being able to stop before what looked to be a rather small shop.

Small by the means of it not being like one of those massive marts. One of the front windows had been shattered inwards, leaving jagged edges Well it appeared that someone wanted something from within, and well he would stop that. So Alex darted forward, jumping through the broken window and landed in a low crouch on the floor with the crunch of glass, making sure his mask was covering his face. The lights flickered a few times before coming on, to reveal an empty room.

Tesla shivered as he slowly made his way across the city, a heavy jacket wrapped around his body, but looking far bulkier due to the Jupiter Device residing beneath it. He had been out on patrol for quite some time, and was feeling quite tired of being cold and wet. Sucking in a breath he kept moving forward, after all that was what heroes did. As he moved along he couldn't help but wonder about how his powers had been changing over time. When they had first manifested in the accident he only had been capable of absorbing the ambient electricity around him. Yet now, he could actively choose to do so, increase the rate of absorption, and even manipulate electricity at will.

He stopped in his tracks, the sound of the last crunching footfall echoing around. Looking down at his hands he surged a current through them for a moment, a small frown forming on his lips. Just how far were his powers going to go, and would he still be the same man through the process? Shaking the multitude of questions from his mind he kept moving forward. "Doesn't matter, what matters is that I keep protecting those in need. It is what he would want."

As those words exited his mouth he came around a street corner just a bolt of something went inside a building with a broken window. His eyes going wide, he immediately ran across the street, apologizing to all the cars that honked at him as he went. Once on the other side he looked over the building for a moment, not recognizing it from his previous patrols. Shaking his head, he surged a new charge through his hands and leapt after the mysterious person. No sooner did his feet land then he lifted a hand up, ready to fight. "Why are you here?"

Breath came from between clenched lips in translucent clouds, fading into the air as he slowly rose from his crouch to let his eyes scan the room. Alex huffed, brushing aside a few large fragments of glass. Rising to his feet in a fashion that felt a little too slow for him. ”Did I miss them?” He muttered under his breath, mind racing a mile a minute and trying to consider the very situation that he was now in. The alert had lead him to this location, yet there was no one pulling any manner of robbery here now. Maybe Cypher could give some kind of illumination of the issue, either through footage of the scene or something else entirely.

Nothing had been ruined in the room, that meant that likely whoever broke in was searching for something specifically. That was when a sound broke him from his rapid manner of thought, whipping around and glaring at someone. Hand raised high as sparks began to leap from the outstretched digits, stray but threatening. So it looked like either someone had followed him onto the scene or he was dealing with one of the prospective thieves with little knowledge on how stealing worked.

Shifting his weight backwards with a sliding step,  Bolt finally spoke up after the seconds that stretched into what felt like minutes to him. ”I...could ask the same thing to you.” He returned to what he assumed was a male, arcs leaping from between index and thumb.

Was this guy a metahuman or just some weird human? Maybe he was one of those guys that were going around and taking justice into their own hand. Taking on codenames and acting like heroes, with less of the non-lethal takes on things. ”I was here looking into a break in and then you come up form behind me.” While that would have been something that he still should have been doing, one could not accuse him of being professional. His body was wound up tight, ready to spring into action the moment the guy did anything funny.

”So what about you? Why are you here?”

Tesla frowned at the man for moment, not sure how to respond. It was then his eyes were drawn to electricity bouncing off the figure's own fingers. Lifting an eyebrow at him, he waved his off to the side, attempting to pull at the currents the other man was putting and absorbing them into his palm. At the same time he was performing this experiment, he responded in more intrigued tone then before. "I'm here to investigate what I presumed was a robbery in progress by a meta." Taking a moment to look around, and then bringing his eyes back to Bolt he added. "But I see now that we are both investigating the same thing, you simply got here first."

Kneeling down, he began to examine the glass near him, not really paying attention to what he assumed was another meta now. After all, if they were an electrokinetic like himself he wasn't in much danger due to how his powers functioned. "Hmm, definitely a break in, not a break out." Looking up he added, "But nothing else is damaged." Nodding to himself, he rose back up to his feet and began to walk by the mysterious man, or would at least attempt to, assuming they did not stop him. "Hmm, so what they were looking for wasn't in here, maybe deeper?"

Alex felt an odd pulling sensation, jolts of electricity arcing from his outstretched hand and assimilating into the man with his hand out before him. Well, it appeared as if he had some kind of energy assimilating ability. That much caught him off guard, thought not enough to make him do anything rash. Not like assaulting someone that was looking into the same thing as him would get anyone anywhere. ”Yeah, you could say i’m pretty good at getting places fast.” Was all he said, turning attention from trying to over analyze the stranger, considering that he still needed to figure out what had happened here.

With his now divided attention, Bolt turned from the male to look over the room with a more deliberate walk. Going over everything from the shattered glass to even the registers, which had been opened by someone.  Perhaps they didn’t understand how businesses worked, or hoped that someone was stupid enough to leave money in there. His attention scanned over the remaining scene pausing briefly upon what looked to be an out of place sight.

A black mark, as if the counter had been scorched but in the shape of a hand. ”Hey, have a look at this.” He noted with a motion. The thing looked like perhaps the sigs of some kind of metahuman power in use, and...well it looked to be leading to a trail that went out the back.

Tesla looked up from his own investigation and walked over, his head tilting slightly in curiosity. Looking at the mark for a moment, he ran a gauntlet covered finger over the hand shape before lifting it up to eye level. "Looks like a pyrokinetic possibly." Turning his head he noticed the trail heading out the back. "Well, whoever left this went out that way at the very least."

Making his way towards the back entrance he began to actively absorb in the ambient electricity around him, charging himself for what seemed to be a possible source of conflict. Looking back at Bolt, he motioned for them to follow. "Come on, let's see if we can catch whoever did this before they get too far. Mark was fresh enough that they should be nearby." With that said he made his way out.

Giving the hand shaped scorch mark a light touch, he felt small specks of scorched wood come up with it. Faint, enough so that it didn’t show on his black gloves as he looked them over. ”Looks like it or someone with that kind of power.” Bolt agreed with a small nod, slowly working over the scorched boot marks worked into the floor. This was as confusing enough sight within itself, but how someone had not caught the metahuman that held this power was another story. Especially with how one could assume a lack of control could lead to a trail like this.

Either way that left them with a way out through the back, thanks to criminals and their odd powers. He didn’t really need anyone to tell him to follow, walking up behind without getting closer while he let his body gather up its electrical stores into a more combat suitable setting. ”If they’re still nearby I should be able to find them.” Without prompt he disappeared, likely as a blur to the untrained eye even trying to focus on him. A low gust of wind follow, while the speedster began to rapidly search the surrounding areas.

Through the small alleyways between buildings, until he caught sight of what looked to be an odd glowing humanoid shape only a good alleyway or two off from them. Returning to Telsa, and kicking up a bit of snow, his lips formed into a smirk. ”Think I found our culprit that way.” He said motioning in one direction. ”Behind some kind of Chinese resturaunt.”

Tesla blinked as Bolt suddenly disappeared from sight in a blur. Not sure how to respond to that, he slowly made his way outside, looking around what was near him. Not noticing anything of particular not, he began to actively absorb in more of the ambient electricity around him, causing a few nearby lights to flicker for a moment before stabilizing. With his focus on charging his body he didn't notice Bolt return until a puff of snow hit his legs. Looking over to his fellow meta, he simply lifted an eyebrow at him. "Well, that sure must be handy."

Walking around the corner, he looked around for the restaurant that was mentioned. Once he spotted it, he began to make his way over to it, kicking up some snow as he broke into a slight jog. Looking back to Bolt he called out, "Think you can slow him down until I catch up speedster?"

Alex always got a certain level of enjoyment from peoples reactions to his speed. Usually it was surprise, that look on their face when they realized that he could move faster than the human eye could keep up with. Causing his face to be plastered with a perpetual dopey grin even while doling out the information that he had found, mostly about where their robber was right now. ”Really useful. Especially when it comes to getting places fast.” He responded with speech that sounded rather hurried, though one could assume that was the norm for a speedster.

Keeping up with the guy was easy enough, though he was more concerned about making sure he didn’t leave him in the snow dust. ”Slow them down? I think I can do that.” In a blur of speed he darted forward, kicking up more snow as he returned to where he saw the person. A humanoid shape with flesh that glowed red like metal pulled from the forging process, each step leaving dark prints within the snow. Snow rapidly melting and evaporating on touch, leaving it wreathed in a shroud of steam.

In a blur he ran past them, only feeling like a push as they slid across the snow coated concrete, and hit a dumpster. Alex stopping, eyes brimming with energy focused on them. ”Sorry, breaking and entering is illegal. Looks like i’m...we’re taking you in.”

Tesla knew he was not going to be able to keep up with the speedster, but it did give him some ideas. Moving the charge in his body to his feet, he sent a jolt down into the ground. Taking a moment to do it again, it charged the snow beneath him, causing him to float above it just a few centimeters. Shrugging he moved his legs as if skating and slid along the snow as if it was ice. After a few seconds he eventually caught back up, skidding to a stop as he transferred his internal charge back to his hands. "We is the correct term in this case."

Looking over to the other meta, and what he assumed was the criminal, he pointed his hands towards them palms out. Flexing his fingers he sent an experimentive arch of electricity out a few inches from his hands. "So, mind telling us what you were doing?"

Indeed the correct word was we as Tesla caught up with his speedier electrokinetic friend...acquaintance. Alex liked to think that he was a friendly enough guy to have people want to be his friend, so he went with the more ideal of the two words. Staring down the criminal, he noticed something about them. They were clutching something within their right hand, almost as if they didn’t want to let something go. ”My guess would be stealing something.” In that instance the air despite the temperature around them grew pretty hot. Enough to even be called sweltering, which made him think something was coming and he didn’t need anymore reason to move.

In the span of less than a second he dashed towards Tesla, grabbed ahold of him and moved back quickly enough to avoid the superheated energy that was released outwards from him in a wave. Concrete melted into sludge and even brick was reduced to a similar state, Alex glaring at the meta that had attempted to melt them. Electricity built up within his right hand, unleashing a bolt at them. Connecting with their chest and rocketing them into one of the walls.

”Alright, this guy looks pretty dangerous. Might wanna be...extra careful now.”

Telsa blinked as he was suddenly moved out of the way of what could only be described as a wave of intense heat. Shaking his head, he turned his focus to the other meta, frowning at him. "So, it looks like we're skipping right to the fighting then." Turning his eyes to Bolt he reached a hand out to them. "I need to borrow some of that electricity of yours."

If he felt no resistance from Bolt, he would begin to siphon the electricity into his body, causing his eyes to glow brighter with every second. Any nearby lighting fixtures would also begin to flicker as his body began to actively absorb in all the nearby ambient electricity around it. After a moment of doing this he would put his hounds out of in front of himself and fire off a wave of electricity at the other meta.

The odd glowing metahuman seemed to let out a pained growl, spasms wracking their body after the odd release of heated energy. Either they were attacking the two of them or something was off with those rather dangerous abilities of theirs. ”Yeah, I think I can offer up some energy.” Bolt responded with a small nod, extending a hand and funneling the charge within him into the male. It felt a little draining to do so, making his knees shake from the sudden loss of energy but nothing that caused him to really feel a lasting weakness. After all, this was more than anything helping them take down a dangerous metahuman before they actually hurt anyone.

The electricity surged from his fiend, slamming into the glowing metahuman and throwing them through the air as if hit by a shock He collided with the wall, shattering brick and causing them to slump on the ground a few seconds in shock. ”huh, that worked better than I thought it would.” Alex muttered to himself, slightly impressed by how quickly that seemed to resolve things. ”I think this is the part where we tie them up and let the police take care of things.”

Tesla took in a breath to calm his nerves, some electricity arching off of his body for a few seconds before coming back under his control. Looking over to Bolt, he simply shrugged, letting out a light chuckle. "I guess so, we should still be careful though." Looking over to what he believed was another meta he began to approach him, pulling out a pair of handcuffs to place on them.

Assuming nothing went wrong, he would begin to handcuff the perpetrator that had tried to fry both him and his fellow electrical meta. Not turning his attention away from his work, he began to talk once again to Bolt. "So, what can you do? Besides speed and electrokinesis I mean?"