Through the Smoke and Haze

The call had come in late at night. Crimes usually came in around this time and by this point in her career Melody Potts, or as many on the street knew her, Rabbit Punch had grown used to such late calls. With a quick hop, skip, and a jump she had made her way over to the scene of the crime. It had, according to the call, started as some sort of bank robbery but had turned into a triple murder. What was unique about this, however, was the fact that it was not the nightly cleanup crew who had been murdered. It was neither the robbery crew who had committed the murders. In fact, it was actually the robbery crew who had been murdered.

What was further curious was the fact that one of the bank robber was actually a known and wanted criminal. The criminal had been a meta, one could manipulate stone and brick, and who used this ability to conduct several robberies and had actually put several people into the hospital. He was, by all means, a real scumbag, one that Melody had actually wanted to put away herself, but now…now he was dead. As safe as that made the streets that didn’t mean it was right and this meant there was in fact another killer on the streets. It was probably the work of a vigilante or perhaps even another villain who also wanted to hit the banks. It was still unknown if anything else had been stolen from the bank just yet. She’d learn when she got there.

When she did arrive it had been, as she suspected, a grizzly scene. The cops had set up yellow tape and were directly the newscasters away. It would surely be in the papers tomorrow, but for now she would have to ignore them and focus on the matter at hand. The bodies were still there, the cameras taking their picture and the forensic team dusting away at them. She herself stood back a bit, letting the professional do their work, though still scanning the area to see if they had missed anything. She couldn’t, obviously, do all that much. She had mainly been brought in for image and for protection in case someone decided to return to the crime scene.

If the cops did find anything immediately she would be told and then she could head off, pursuing the clue and potentially the killer. As it stood, however, it was a waiting game. She gave a shake of her head, clicking her tongue. These were hardly the exciting jobs she enjoyed, the kind where you could just beat up the villain and throw them into a cell somewhere, no…no, this was the boring kind where all she could do was try and pick something up, wait for the villain to return if they did even return, or if the cops found any sort of lead for her to go on. Yep…this was the life a hero.

The crime scene was, as usual, confusing as hell. The detective investigating the scene was an older man. Looked to be in his late fifties. Grey beard, sunken brown eyes, pale skin. He's obviously a night owl, likely from a long life in his line of work. Specifically, he'd been assigned to tracking a case he doubted would ever end. At least there was no end in sight. Melody would spot the detective approaching, a cigarette between his teeth. Typical detective attire, a longcoat and a hat, suit under the coat, and a pair of leather dress shoes. He tips his hat to her. "Ah, Rabbit Punch. They called you in for this, huh?" He gestures for her to follow him.

Within the bak are three dead bodies, each covered in light amounts of char, despite not being burnt. No visible wounds on the bodies, save for the third near the entrance, which had a stab wound straight through the back of the neck, which pierced up into the skull. "This is what we're dealing with here. Yet another one for my case file. This is the smoke's work, without a doubt." Speaking of smoke, the smell lingered in the air, as if someone were smoking a brisket, or had a running camp fire.

"As usual, no footsteps, no handprints, and some absolutely ruined vents." He then looks at Melody. "Alright." He tosses his cigarette into the nearby trashcan. "Let me fill you in. The smoke is an anomaly that's popped up all over the world. Supposedly, he was part of some meta team the Russians tried to put together. Apparently they didn't treat their employees kindly. Smoke went awol, and has been drifting around ever since." He proceeds to crouch down by a body, this one being the leader of the bank robbers. "Course, this is an unusual pattern for the smoke. From what we can tell, all his killings are about freedom. That being, he kills people who take it away. Typically around here he kills human traffickers. he caused a camera outage in china once supposedly. No deaths there, just messin with totalatarianism I suppose." He shrugs. "Point is, we suspect this fellow here had more connections than we thought. Because this is outside of smoke's usual pattern. Any other criminals he pursues are handled non lethally."

He stands up, turning about to face her once again with arms crossed. "You think you could catch up to smoke? He usually leaves a trail of it in the sky, but...none of us can catch up. Careful, he's got the best russian special forces training there is on book."

Melody blinked a bit as the cop explained everything that they had on this case. She crossed her arms, tilting her head a bit. “Damn, you guys really had a lot figured out on this. Could’ve just called me on the way, ya know?” She said, smirking a bit. It was a rough scene, but this was really a bit off to her. They had this guy’s whole profile, wasn’t much of a mystery at all. Wouldn’t be that hard to track or capture the fellow either by the sounds of it. “Ya just got everything on him, even motive, eh?” She rubbed the back of her head, looking up at the skylight and sighing. After a moment of consideration, she gave a nod. “Mhmm, no worries, I’ll go bring ‘em in, try and knock some sense into him, so forth. You lot know my thing.”

She didn’t need much else. She had a trail, a name, a motive, and the man’s abilities. This was coming together pretty well, honestly. She had made her way out of the building and then up to the roof after a few wall jumps. Her eyes then went to the sky, looking for the smoke trail, hand over her brow as she searched. It was, for the most part, a clear night. It was, however, also the city. Smoke and steam weren’t that uncommon but after a bit of searching she found what she thought she was looking for. There was, in fact, a smoke trail. It went on for a decent bit, but it was nothing she felt she couldn’t catch up with.

She began with a hard hop, then began bounding from building to building, landing safely on each one. She followed the path, trying to move quickly so the villain on the run couldn’t get far. She wasn’t sure exactly how far it would take her, but for now she hopped with determination, trying to spot any sign of the man as she went. As she hurried along she thought of how she was actually deal with him. For once, she may actually try and take a page from Odd’s book and talk the guy down a bit, but honestly if it came to a fight she already had a few ways of taking him down in mind. It wasn’t, after all, something that was out of the norm for her.

Continuing from building to building, she didn’t seem to try and hide her presence nor made any attempt at stealth. From above, it may actually be quite easily to see, she was, after all, a woman with rabbit ears and crackling with a bright orange energy around her.

The detective, long tired of this entire case, nods slightly. "This is what we have based on evidence form over the years. We don't exactly have anything in our arsenal to catch him. He's made of smoke." The man shrugs. "We theorized a vacuum would work. Main issue is there's no limit to the smoke he could produce." He makes an explosion motion with his hands, implying he could just produce smoke until any container he was in broke.

As the rabbit lass hops off, the detective makes his way to his car, promptly opening the back door and passing out face down in the back seat. What a shitty night.

It would be easy to notice, the smoke trail has a different scent compared to the other smells coming from the chimneys and pipes. Those just had the scent of dark and gritty smoke. The smell left behind by this vigilante was different. More like a fresh camp fire, or wood pellets burning in a smoker. Overall much more pleasant.

Eventually, the smoke trail she's following gets thicker and thicker, until she could see it. A cloud of smoke moving unnaturally, flowing into a vent entrance that's on top of an empty office building.

It was easy enough to catch up and follow the trail of smoke. It wasn’t exactly…well, subtle. A power like that, while escapes were easy, it seemed like an easy power to track and follow. Though, still…there was some implications behind the power that didn’t seem all that appealing. Whatever awaited her inside that office building, however, didn’t seem to concern her all that much. She didn’t get to be the fifth strongest hero for nothing. It was just smoke after all.

The entry point was up high, which was good, and it had been a quiet night on the street which meant she could let loose a little bit. With a few hops, she made her way up the side of the building besides the one the villain had entered and for a moment she waited. She just stared at the vent he entered and mentally went through the next steps of the plan. It’d be best to strike when it wasn’t expecting her, element of surprise. And for that to work…

She had it. She had her plan.

Across her legs, orange bands of what looked like lightning began to crackle, though they barely made a sound. Her eyes seemed to glow for a moment, and then…and then she took off. She sent herself hurdling towards the wall where the vent laid and with a leg extended, crashed through it. Brick and cement broke apart as her leg and the rest of her broke through to the other side. It was a loud entrance, it sounded almost like an explosion, and as soon as she was through her fists would be raised in a defensive stance.

“Villain.” She started in a firm and confident voice; a small grin strewed across her face. “You should surrender now while you still have a chance. We can make this whole thing real easy for ya, just make yourself whole, surrender, and come with me. Easy peasy, yeah?” Her eyes darted around the room, taking in every inch of whatever may be in there, smoke and all, and she was ready to jump backward and back out the hole she had made in the wall. She wasn’t the sort to backtrack, of course, but options were good. As she stood there, waiting for an answer, her hands were now crackling with that orange energy that she had kicked through the wall with, ready for whatever was to be thrown at her.