Paper World (Stryker)

Freddie Smith.  Seven priors for mugging, armed robbery and carjacking.  A subject matching his description had been I.D'd in a purse snatching outside a grocery store ten minutes ago.  The cops were getting a statement from the victim, but Freddie was long gone from the scene. The police would open an investigation and would probably try to collar him over the next few days, question him, see if they could find the missing items. Derrick wasn't going to let it take that long, not with how much the NYPD had on their plates. As Knightstaff, he could take care of things a lot faster.  Freddie may have fled the scene ten minutes ago, but Derrick had picked up his trail in five. It was lucky for the victim that Freddie had mugged her in one of his patrol routes.  In no time at all, he had caught up to a sweating, thin and reedy Italian man.  The perpetrator was only a block ahead of him, oblivious to his surroundings.  But then, people hardly ever bothered to look up.

Derrick zero'd in on his target as he grappled from rooftop to rooftop under the cover of darkness, running across abandoned buildings and leaping across burned out husks. Much of the city had been destroyed and it had hardly been able to recover with the rampant crime rate that had climbed in the devastation's wake.  Of course, Derrick thought quietly to himself, it wasn't as if the police were equipped to deal with people who could creat earthquakes, time travel, or take control of peoples minds. He didn't fault them for that, but he did fault them for failing to find a way to adapt. Using his rope, Knightstaff swung off of a streetlight and hit the ground with his staff, bounding forward on it like a pole vaulter and then swinging it as soon as he hit the ground in one fluid motion, his suit flexing with him as he did so.  With a loud thwack, the metal middle of the staff hit the back of both of the perp's knees, sending him sprawling to the ground in heap. The purse snatcher groaned and flipped himself over, rubbing at the affected area. His eyes scanned the area in bewilderment  before alighting on Knightstaff with an eyeroll.

"Oh for crying out loud, another one? A man can't make a decent living with all you hero types running around, shittin on the little guy. Where were you when Dr.Necrodium attacked huh? I lost everything because of that shit!" Derrick cocked his head to one side. He could sympathize with the man, but it didn't excuse the theft. "Be that as it may, you didn't have to resort to this. Tell you what. If you return the purse now, I'll let you go to find something more...constructive to do." The man spit, a glob landing on Derrick's chest. "Screw you. The hell do you think you are, my moral compass?""The name is Knightstaff," Derrick replied in an  irritated  tone.  "And despite your circumstances you could have done the right thing."  The staff smacked down hard, on the mugger's chest, generating a blast of electrical energy that caused the man  to spasm and fall to the ground stunned.  With a satisfied grimace, Derrick grabbed the stolen purse and shouldered it after dialing 911 with the criminal's own phone and leaving him for the authorities.  The purse was returned quickly and with his grappling hook, Derrick left the scene almost as quickly as he had arrived, retreating to a rooftop and returning to monitoring the police band in his suit.  There were always more things to do.

Sudden movement off to his left put him into fight mode, and he whirled around with his power staff. Not many people frequented rooftops. "Who goes there?"