That's no way to treat a lady (Open)

Damn the darkness, for it had fallen upon the city once against empowering the wretched criminals with courage. The courage to do wrong, the courage to try and get away with IT. Damn the darkness for its return and damn those who hide inside it. The whole world be cursed by its presence, always on time and always waiting for you at the end of the day. What good people are left in the world have everything to fear from the darkness, and what good people are left have little hope in a world full of men and women capable of performing godly feats.

Heroes fight the good fight but honestly what chance do they have when they abide by their morale conduct. When they do their best not to make compromises. Has it not always been easier to lie than tell the truth? Has it not always been easier to take what you wanted rather than earn it? Some may argue this but in this world the good gets weaker and the evil gets stronger every day because evil is what follows when good surrenders and good fears.

'Why am I still doing this' Noah thought to himself, reviewing files spread across a desk within the empty lab of William Kurtz. 'Elizabeth died so I can live, but am I really living doing what I am doing? Fighting a losing battle? Just because I have powers does it mean i'm responsible for what goes on out there?' Noah rubbed his temples and turned away from the table. It seemed like AIVAS cataloged every police report and printed them out for either Connor, Nicole or him to review. Connor had left him in charge of Chicago while he was in Los Angeles and Nicole was off doing her own personal vendetta.

Suddenly upon the wide screen that was Professor Kurtz' computer appeared yet another case alert. Noah turned and walked over to the computer. A detective Murphy was murdered several hours ago, his body was found frozen solid. "AIVAS, see if you can access Detective Murphys' computer at the precinct and find out what case he was working on."

AIVAS began its search while also pulling up Murphys' personal file. Seemed like he was an idealist, a good man trying to make as much of a difference as he could in the world. He solved a lot of cases, possibly saved hundreds of lives by exposing the criminal he had put behind bars. Only problem was that he made himself a target to evil. Not all heroes hid behind a mask.

"Murphy was working on the Aisha Haas case." AIVAS stated, in its masculine monotone voice. "It appears that Murphy linked her disappearance with the disappearance of fifty other young woman over the last year."

"What did he find?" Noah asked, walking over to a table which contained multiple devices and a belt which had his 'Equip' device attached. "He found a warehouse at the dock where he believed they were storing some of the women. He disappeared two days ago and was discovered today. The cause of death was severe hypothermia."

"Aivas download a forensics case into the equip then start compiling a list of known Meta-humans with Ice manipulation then narrow it down to likely culprits." Noah wrapped the belt around his waist, a capable still attached to the equip device. He tapped it once and the blue light illuminated from the core of the device. "Download Complete. Compiling data on known Ice manipulators."

Noah unplugged the cord and let it drop to the ground as he approached a blue motor cycle, sleek in design and fast. "When its done send it to my HD unit. I'm going to the warehouse, they might not be there anymore but they were bound to have left some sort of clue." With a thought, Noahs' suit began to materialize around his body as he peeled off from the lab on the motorcycle out through a secret door to the CRDI building towards the warehouse.

The Warehouse

'Dark, damp, and a whole lot of empty.' Noah thought to himself as he snuck into the warehouse from the roof tops. Aside from some empty crates and old moving equipment the place was desolate but one thing that couldn't be hidden was the dust. There was obviously a whole lot more there not to long ago. "AIVAS see if you can hack into the surveillance feed of the docks to see who moved this stuff."

Latching the hook to hi grapple to a rapture, Noah lowered himself down to the ground. After retracting the cable he called out the forensics kit he brought along. Performing several tests, he came up with nothing until finally finding a trace amount of blood.
"AIVAS run this sam..."

"Sir, the surveillance footage cuts off between midnight and 3 am yesterday and there are no known Ice manipulators that would feasibly be involved in this sort of business in Chicago, no one who has been noted on the network."

"Alright well run this blood sample and see if it matches any of the missing woman from the pass year." Noah started packing up the forensic tools but suddenly an ice lance pierced through the case just nearly missing Noah. Three more icicles were launched at him from the shadows, Noah deflected them with his push powers and switched over to night  vision. It was some sort of hooded man and he was coming straight at Noah. The temperature of the entire building started to drop, it was lowest close to the ice manipulator. From the doorways came a few men dressed in thermal clothing and wielding machine guns but it didn't seem like they were going to get involved right that second. Now that Ice cube was out of the shadows Noah switched back to normal vision.

Ice cube moved fast, and summoned a blade of ice attempting to impale Noah who dodged just in time but suddenly slipped losing his balance. Before he cold regain his composer, Ice cube slammed a solid beam of ice against Noah hurtling him back. Noah was sliding on top of the ground. It was frozen, and Ice Cube had ice skates on making him quick and dangerous. Ice Cube came back around for another attack but Noah used his push ability to throw him away, his best offence being to keep Ice cube knocked down. however, as the ice manipulator flew trough the air he formed sort of a ice bridge which he skated on. 'This is going to be a tough one.' Noah thought to himself, preparing for a third attack.

Spoiler:

Lawrence Kane woke up in the guest bed of a forth floor city apartment sitting in not quite the poorest of neighbourhoods. Jolting himself awake with electricity he looked at the clock: five hours sleep. A pretty standard number. So much energy was always running through him that too much rest was just unbearable. That and the fact that it was 14:00 already, the light was kind of prohibitive of calming sleep. Strolling into the kitchen, he looted the fridge for a quick bit of milk and some string cheese, reflecting on how nice it might be to own a home instead of breaking into other peoples' homes and taking up temporary residence. He just didn't have the time for that. Or the money. Or the patience to fill out legal forms. Crime was just easier, more sustainable, and probably more eco-friendly, he mused as he slipped out the window and slid nonchalantly down the loose gutter that ran into the disparate and oddly dark alleyway behind the building.

From there, it was time for running rounds. With a backpack full of crap from criminal exploits of the last night, some actually crap and some worth a good deal, he made his way to various stores and shops, putting together what cash he could.

Last night he had spent his time checking car doors, looking for one that was unlocked so he could grab an iPod or some spare cash or whatever was left lying around, but tonight felt like more of a dedicated night.  A warehouse hopping kind of night. About an hour past dusk he popped in headphones and fired up a playlist from some poor sap's missing iTouch, relishing in cool 80s rock.

The very first stop he made was a big building with a sliding door on the front, locked by, of all things, a Master lock. His urge to laugh was only partially suppressed as he pulled out a tension wrench and a Peterson hook, popping the heavy padlock open in a few seconds. With all his might he pushed the heavy door loudly over on its rails, slipping in and closing it before looking around. He didn't even remotely expect what he saw inside, besides the distinct lack of things light and rich to steal. Somehow the sounds of icicles flying and crashing against concrete and metal were drowned out by music he wasn't even old enough to be nostalgic for.

Eyes of a bewildering amount of heavily armed men circled around the fighting meta humans froze him in place far faster than the ice mage. There wasn't an out now; this would be a game of reaction, and hopefully one he could win.

(( Sorry if this isn't long enough; I'm just starting out here. ))

AIVAS had access to the limitless network, yet despite its best efforts it had come up short on finding any possible match for Ice Cube. This meant that either this man never existed before or has some how completely erased himself from the network. AIVAS found this troubling and continued its search to find out the identity of this ice wielder. Meanwhile, a third party had entered the warehouse which could be only be choked up to bad luck for the young man who had just entered. Men wearing ski masks held the boy up at gun point with their submachine guns. "Don't move or we'll kill you where you stand boy!"

'Damn where did he come from?' Distracted for an instant was all it took for Ice Cube to gain an advantage as he froze Noah's foot to the ground. "Shi-" The attack wasn't over yet, for Ice cube had launched a furry of icicles toward the blue Vigilante. Letting out  large shock wave, the icicles shattered to pieces in front of Noah. However, they did not fall but simply floated around him as the damp air helped to enlarge the pieces to more icicles.

Ice cube smirked, believing himself to have won the fight. "He isn't the Red one but kill him anyway. One less vigilante to deal with." A voice said, raspy and seemingly coming from all around the warehouse making it impossible to pinpoint the source. Ice Cube held out an open hand and then closed it into a fist commanding the icicles to turn Blue into a pin cushion. However, they clearly underestimated the young protégé.

Letting out a large, and powerful burst which not only shattered the icicles, the frozen floor around Noah, and the ice around is leg but also threw Ice cube off his feet; sliding across the frozen floor. "Don't think you've won just yet." Noah stated, quickly switching to heat vision to pick up the source of the voice which had come from within the warehouse office. 'Got you...'

Three throwing discs appeared in his right hand which he threw, using his push power to accelerate the strength in which he threw them. The hit the large pane window, which was spray painted over, and shattered it to pieces revealing a man wearing a red suit obviously dissatisfied. "tch...fancy toys and feeble powers won't impress me Vigilante." The mans eyes were red, and something seemed off about him. Ice Cube had regained his footing and had a sword of ice in his hands but he was obviously shaken by the power Noah displayed. AIVAS tried identifying the man in the suit, but no luck with him either.

Xiao's Apartment

Xiao was in her modest Chicago apartment, now well furnished with her savings from her work and an allowance for staying in school from Ellie. She sat in front of her mirror, applying makeup and curling her hair with a curling iron. She re-read her messages with her guardian, their discussions starting to feel like a parent and child- how Xiao should stay in school and keep out of trouble, and avoid areas like the Slums, the Industrial areas and the Docks. The teenager felt it odd she was being specific.  Xiao avoided telling Ellie she’d joined a superhero group, and felt slightly bad at her dishonesty; but she was conflicted with her desire to help and her desire to honor her guardian.
She decided some practice was in order, and she would most definitely try out those areas. Nothing too major, hopefully, perhaps stop a mugging or some shady deal.

Xiao stood up and went to her full length mirror... she smiled to herself slightly at how she looked with makeup, and stood with poise, her shoulders out; she thought she looked even taller, looked... heroic.  She put on the domino mask and adheres it to her face with spirit gum, giggling to herself. She leaned in closer and noticed her muscles were growing now, likely due to her increased intake of meat.

“Stop, evildoer!” She tries out a voice, not quite feeling the authority of it.

“Stop, in the name of justice!” She said, a bit higher strung... but grumbled she sounded too much like sailor moon.

“You stop what you’re doing!” She said, but blew a raspberry.

“Halt... I am the dragon warrior, Surrender or face me!” she tried on last time, finding that speaking was too much a hassle.  Xiao groaned at slumped into bed, checking the time on her iPone. it was 9pm now, and it was going to be a long night. She put it in her drawer, not wanting to entertain calls while she was out.

The Warehouse

Xiao arrived at the warehouse district and parked her moped just across the street from the warehouse fences. She climbs over, the barbed wire snagging slightly on her nanofiber wetsuit – she decided it was modest enough to be a hero costume – but the rip closes on its own quickly enough. She walks around, barefoot and taking in the smells of the area. One warehouse was for electronics, while Xiao lingered outside a warehouse that stored seafood from Asia.

It seemed she didn’t walk far to find trouble though, as she caught the scent of frost in the air, from a non-freezer warehouse. She broke into a sprint and headed there, sticking to the shadows for the most part, starting to use some of the sensible training from both Knightwatch and Ellie. She looked around and saw that there was indeed trouble brewing- a young man with headphones held at gunpoint, a strange figure in stranger armor and wielding some ability facing off against an ice wielder, and a voice that echoed throughout the large warehouse.

She took a moment to process the situation, contemplating a course of action. She was taken by surprise by two thugs guarding the perimeter. She gasped as they were in view, scary looking men in ski masks and military camouflage.

“Hey! It’s another weirdo in a costume!” One of them said, pointing his weapon at Xiao.

“Huh, at least this one’s a chick... a tall one. and check out the wetsuit. Damn, love me some tall girls.” The Other one said in a sultry tone, licking his lips as he looked at Xiao with lust-filled eyes.

“Hey, you give up, we promise we won’t kill ya.” They offered.

Xiao then stood up slowly. She looked them in the eye, but only managed to stammer what she had on her mind. “Halt...What... whatever you’re doing in there... you... you should stop it right... now?” She said, the confidence in her voice not quite the same as she rehearsed back home.

The two shared a hearty laugh between themselves. They were so amused. “Hahaha! she must be some kind of rookie hero or something! Go to hell.” The thugs did not want to take a risk with whatever the hero could do, and fired fully automatic at Xiao, at point blank range.

Xiao was still not yet as fast as formally trained soldiers or the like, but nonetheless she ducked behind a nearby crate in the warehouse's perimeter when they opened fire, and even let out a cry of pain to pretend she was hurt. She was hit of course, but she just wasn’t hurt.

“Looks like her career’s already over. Come on, I don’t mind if she’s still bleeding.” One said, slowly approaching the large, slightly bullet ridden crate, weapon at the ready.

“You sicko. You’d probably do her if she was already dea- AAAAH! MY LEG! MY LEEEG!” Xiao, in her panic, grabbed the approaching man by the foot and tripped him, droving her elbow into his knee, thinking only to disable him. She didn’t quite grasp just how strong she was, or how the human body worked, applying pressure to unintentionally destroy the man’s limb. Up until now she’d fought monsters and aliens... inflicting pain on human beings deeply offended and disgusted her,  that she didn’t even notice the second gunman panicking.

“FUCK SHE’S GOT SUPER STRENGTH!”  The man emptied his assault rifle into Xiao, the heavy rounds mere pinpricks to her dragon imbued skin. He tried to run, but the dragon girl tossed a wooden crate his way. Xiao restrained him by twisting a downspout pipe around his neck and arms, pinning him to the wall.

“YOU FUCKING MONSTER! YOU FUCKING CRIPPLED HIM! YOU SICK FUCK YOU PROBABLY GET OFF KILLING-” Xiao looked at the excessively cursing thug and stuffed his mouth with his own boot, while propping up his now crippled companion next to him. The man was still in shock over his broken leg, crying out in pain as the grounded kneecap began to bleed internally.

Xiao’s breathing was rapid now, her conscience weighing down on her over what she’d done. She made her way in through the service entrance to enter the warehouse itself, to assist in the situation.


Another figure meanwhile, kept an eye on things from on high, invisible to the naked eye, looking through the sky light.

((Red seems to have forgotten this, and its been a month... so... reap away!))