Dealing With D-Listers (Amused Glint)

The people seated in the lobby of L.A. police station were fixated on the widescreen TV on the wall showing the evening news. Apparently some 90-ft tall giant woman was brawling with another giant metahuman downtown. All the news channels were covering this clash of the meta kaijus. Mayhem and terror reigned as their battle caused untold collateral damage.

In contrast, The lobby came to life with the main entrance opening, a domino-mask wearing, athletically built blonde man in a period Red Coat forcefully shoved through. He was bloodied and bruised; his eye had swollen shut, and he was missing a few teeth. A bullwhip wrapped around his arms.

Two on-duty police officers meet the Red Coat, who was all too happy to see the law enforcers. "Oh gods! take me, take me now constable! Don't let this... this hellion have her way with me!" He said, getting away from the figure who brought him here. A jacket wearing, hooded figure who simply put some soot on her eyes. A sword was on her back.

"Rum Sodomy Lash. Don't worry, we'll see about Extraditing you back to England next week." They comfort him, and his relief could not have been greater when he was brought to the cell, surrounded by his fellow injured criminals.

"Hey officer. Are there any other bounties up for grabs?" Said the bounty hunter.

The holding cell where the street criminals and costumed villains was filled to capacity, as people were made to share the small cell. No one in there of note, just street level enforcers, hustlers and mental cases. Most were nursing bruises and cuts. The officer looked at Diana. "Pretty sure you got all of em, don't you kid?"

Diana says nothing, her disapproving scowl telling all. The desk officer checks the databanks for her, and got a hit.  "Okay. Here's the last bounty... but it's only $100 for a creep named The Chloroformaster. Sexual Assault, Voyeurism, indecent public behavior."

"Great... a total Perv. I'll take it." Diana said.

"Alright. Lemme print out your bounty authorization and you'll be on your way." The officer said, grabbing the authorization stamp and switching the printer on. Diana took a seat to wait.

Flight was a tricky thing.  You couldn't go too fast in case you chocked on a bug but you couldn't fly too slowly either otherwise the point for flying would be moot.  But what no one ever spoke about was how damn cold it was in the sky.  Jade landed her floating platform of glass outside of the local precinct and practically ran off while rubbing her arms.

"Girl, you  need to get yourself a warmer costume," She breathed to herself as she disassembled her glass platform which would join her costume.  Indeed her costume was simply a padded black suit combined with matching bottoms, neither of which did any good at keeping her insulated.  Jade also suspected that her outfit wouldn't keep her safe either but she had to roll with what she had.  And she heavily suspected that the dress made out of glass that sat on top of said black outfit was highly detrimental but god damn it the dress looked pretty.

The glass dress had been crafted from the stained glass window of an old church so the dress shimmered with reds, blues, and greens. Jade had applied the same technique to her mask which was more fit for a masquerade ball than it was for crime fighting.  Her mask was made out of purples and reds and was shaped so that it took on the shape of a butterfly. The eye slots of the mask was also shaped in a way that if she needed to take to the air she could simply transform the eye slot into a crude goggle.

All in all Jade was proud of her outfit but that didn't mean that she didn't want a better one.   And to get a better uniform she needed money. And lately all of the bounties were being completed straight out from under her. The amount of cash that she had on her was running dangerously low and Jade wasn't about to break another ATM, so with head held high she stepped through the doors of the police station and headed straight towards the desk officer.

Ding. Ding.

She hit the bell on the desk and waited until the officer on duty came back to the desk.

"Um... hi. I was wondering if there were any bounties still available. I know you said that you were out last week but I someone told me to check back again this week so you know..." The officer eyed her as though to ask if she was even old enough to be buying alcohol (she wasn't) but checked the database anyways.

"Hm, looks like there's a few left," he clicked something with his mouse while Jade shuffled in the precinct trying to stay warm. "There's a guy. The Red Coat. Oh yeah he's worth a hefty sum. Wanted for extradition I believe."

"Yes! I'll take it! Any leads on where I can-" She was cut off as the door opened and someone stumbled through beaten and bruised.  Jade nearly stepped to help the man until she realized his attire and the concern on her face turned to one of exasperation.  The normally considerate Jade let out a small scream, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"  As the crook was being processed Jade grabbed handfuls of her hair, "He couldn't just resist arrest a little longer?"

Jade collected herself and glared at the girl with the sword that brought this man in. There was too much competition in this town, Jade realized that she ought to-

"...it's only $100 for a creep named The Chloroformaster. Sexual Assault, Voyeurism, indecent public behavior."

One hundred dollars... there was so much that Jade could do with that. Well... not really but money was still money.  She glared at the girl with the sword, clenched her fists, and then stormed over, letting light bounce off of her glass dress as she closed the distance.

"Hi!" Jade beamed, her voice coming out a little more high pitched than she would like. She cleared her throat, "Hello," Jade tried in a deeper tone, "I see that you're taking a bounty for the Chloroformer and I was just wondering if you would like to...uh... share? I mean, you know with the economy and all you can never be too sure who turns to crime nowadays. Plus us heroes gotta watch each other's backs, am I right? " She chuckled nervously. "So what do you say? Partners?"

Diana sat in the wooden chair, giving her limbs a good stretching and rotation from her last skirmish. She looked up when she heard someone say hi, a tackishly costumed vigilante and would-be bounty hunter. She was either nuts or had special abilities, and Diana hoped it was the former.

"Sure... I usually go after them for practice. But hey, it's dinner time and the Red Coat made me do alot of running. You wanna grab dinner first? I'll buy. I know this place round the corner." Diana invited "I'm..." Not the blood sword anymore. "Ronin." she picked a more fitting alias, one that she should've put on her updated profile.

Diana took the Bounty Authorization from the desk officer as well as photocopies of files on their perp. She folded them and stuffed them in her Louis Vitton shoulder bag.

"So... what do you call yourself, and what do you do?" She asked Jade, as she headed to the Diner, assuming she'd not pass up free dinner.

Oh wow.  Plans never really worked out this well before.  It almost felt like there was a higher power out there that wanted this cooperation to work. Almost. In fact she was so flabbergasted that she nearly missed the sword girl's offer of a free dinner.

"I-w- You- Yeah sure why not? I mean- you know, if you're insisting," Jade responded with yet another high pitched nervous chuckle as she followed the sword based (or so she assumed) heroine to claim the bounty. Ronin huh? Was the girl Japanese? The skin tone didn't look like it... but she could be half Japanese.  Jade didn't want to go and start making generalizations now. She had just met the girl and didn't want this... tag team to get off on a bad start.

"My name is J-" She stopped before she gave away her real name, "Shard... JShard... just Shard actually."  Jade waved her hand in front of her stained glass dress and several chips of multicolored glass flew off to form a rough glove around her hand.   Jade consciously commanded the glove to open and close with her own fist- a task which was more difficult than it sounded.  "And I control glass."  That wasn't the complete truth but Jade had learned early on that one should never be too forthwith with their powers.

And trying to return the same courtesy to her newfound companion, Jade spoke,"So... with a name like Ronin... do you do stuff with swords?" Jade knew she wasn't about to win a conversationalist of the year award, but she was going to do what she could to make copacetic.

"Glass huh." Diana's still combat-pragmatic mind processed the possibilities of such an ability while they walked to the diner. "You know, alot of goons I fight wear shades to look cool. You could like, gouge out an eye to take em out of the fight instantly!" Diana said that like it wasn't the most sick and gruesome application ever.

"Sword, fists, feet, furniture, appliances. Sometimes you get caught up in the moment and use what's on hand." Diana explained, basically telling Shard that Diana was a fighter.

They enter the diner, and keeping with the times it was one of those newfangled places with fewer staff. Instead, the tables had digital screens built in, allowing the customers to simply tap their orders in, swiping left or right for the available food items.

Diana took off her jacket in the much warmer interior, and hung it on the chair. The sight of two vigilantes garnered a few looks from civilians, some of whom took pictures of Diana and Jade. Once seated she swiped a few times under the burger group and settled on a large looking burger with two aptties too much bacon. "I'll have the bacon double burger with cheese, and a strawberry milkshake."

She turns the digital screen to Jade so she could order. "You been a hero long then?"

Jade was still thinking about enjoying a meal that came from something other than a can when Ronin suggested gouging out her opponent's eyes with their own glasses.  The shorter girl had to do a quick double take.

"Girl, don't you think that's a bit too... illegal?" She asked whilst opening the door for Ronin to step through.  As the two girls stepped through and eyes started turning towards them, Jade suddenly had second thoughts about creating such a flashy outfit.   The whole point was to get noticed... but perhaps just not in a diner.  She subtly looked away from the people who were staring and tried to act graceful as her glass dress lightly scrapped against a table and nearly threw her off balance.

As they sat down, Jade placed her hand on one side of her face and turned away from the camera phone that clicked their picture. Jade made a mental note to herself to make up a backup design in case she ever needed to do anything... quiet.  But then again, when your powers are to literally cause mass destruction you don't necessarily design around subtlety.

She gave Ronin a curious glance as the sword, fists, feet, furniture, and appliances girl  spoke her order out loud. Jade looked around trying to see if there was a waiter that Ronin was talking to. Okay... was this a competition? Maybe she wanted to guilt Jade about not spending too much?  When Ronin finally passed the tablet over, Jade put a lot of thought into each swipe.

With trepidation she swiped pass the salads because no one liked salads, and then pass the burgers because those were heavy, and then pass the steaks cause those were expensive, and oh god there were so much to choose from. As the choices started to pile up Jade calmly went back to the burgers and ordered the same thing as Ronin- minus the fries.

"No... not really. Well not an official one for that long. I mean I've scared people away with my powers but I've only bee in two... maybe three or four fights with another meta- that's what we call ourselves right?" Jade finally replied to her companion.

Diana laughed at Jade's... naivety and inexperience. "You're right, it's illegal. And getting killed in a fight is a mild inconvenience." She said, wondering if those fights were even dangerous enough to warrant threatening to gouge out someone's eyes.

After a few minutes the buzz of a flying drone from the kitchen caught Diana's attention. It delivered a tray with their order in it. Two Bacon double burgers with cheese, two very creamy strawberry milkshakes, and one box of fries.

"Metahuman... Biodynamic... supers.... super powered... whatever floats your boat. Me, I'm a swordsman first. " Diana quickly goes through the terms. washed down the greasy, meaty creation with the thick strawberry shake. "Oh man that's good."

While she eats, Diana takes the moment to open Chloroformaster's file and shares it with Jade. The sad man wore a Chloroform bottle themed costume, and had an extensive list of victims, including even some local costume female heroes. His modus was chloroforming lone women, then take pictures of them... thus far they've not come forward with sexual assault, but it was only a matter of time before things escalated and the Chloroformaster would cross that line. Diana's enthusiasm turned to disgust, as the man's crimes were directly especially at women. Profanities would've emerged from her mouth, were she not chowing down on burger and fries.

"That's interesting," Jade mused aloud as she wiped her hands on two of the cheap napkins that came with their meal.   She finished chewing and picked up a page from the file that they were both looking through.  "This here says that he chloroforms his victims and then takes pictures of them."  A sip from her milkshake and she continues talking, "What I'm wondering however, is how he manages to get close enough to some of these women- especially the metahumans, to apply chloroform."

After a few more bites from her burger while studying the picture of the perp, Jade spoke up again. "Also, chloroform doesn't work that way. He would  need some other drugs to disable these women."  Jade drummed her fingers along the plastic tray that held her burger as she thought about the possibilities.  Though true that she lacked experience in fighting other metahumans, she liked to think out all angles of a situation before engaging.

"He looks too thin to physically pin down the women and apply chloroform for over five minutes," Jade paused, then looked to Ronin and quickly added, "which is generally how long it takes to knock someone out using strictly chloroform. I may or may not have looked this up earlier in my career." Ever quick to not let Ronin question why she would be looking up chloroform, Jade began talking again.  "Anyways, I think that there has to be another way he's incapacitating these women.  Could be some sort of projectile gas spray thing. Or he could be a low powered metahuman that induces unconsciousness at a touch range."

Rather proud of her own analysis, Jade slid the paper back over to Ronin as if to ask the other girl what her opinion was.

Diana listened to Jade's speculation about the Chloroformaster's possible latent metahuman abilities, while chewing on delicious burger meat and bacon. Diana was mostly concerned over the man's sexist crimes, like he was specifically making every superhero with feminist tendencies want to kill him.

"Or maybe he just hits them over the head. I put lots of people to sleep that way." She finally said, once her mouth was clear of soul food. "...You know, just reading about all the women he's assaulted... I'm going to beat him black and blue, and that's just for coming peacefully."

More minutes pass and mastication happen, and Diana finishes her meal with a hearty burp. She gets up, puts on her jacket and pays for the bill using the receiving scanning machine. She waits for Jade and they'd be on their way to Chloroformaster's house.

As Ronin was paying their bill, the glass manipulator rose from her seat and stood outside, waiting for her traveling companion.  Could this culprit really be as simple as that? Jade tried not to think about the possibility of this being a clean cut arrest without any complications. Fortune always did favor the prepared.

While she waited outside for Ronin to finish paying the bill, Jade closed her eyes and allowed her sensory power to pour out to its full range.  The good thing about being able to control glass was that the substance was in almost everything.  The downside was that glass was in almost everything.  Jade had to consciously pick and choose which piece of glass she could deconstruct and use for her own purpose.  This would be easier in a poorer neighborhood, what with the abandoned houses and whatnot, but in a well populated area like this... no.

With a sigh she began to reach out to the range of her macro kinesis and disassemble any of the spare glass that nobody needed or was using. This included litter such as glass bottles, broken cups, and a few mirrors that had long ago cracked.  The assorted glassware that she was collected was not likely to strike fear into the heart of her enemies, but this was better than walking into the vicinity with nothing but her dress and mask.  

Jade hummed to herself and tapped her feet as she waited for her glass to gather.  The pieces that were closer to her had sailed through the h) air and were now orbiting her like a slow whirlwind.  The farther pieces however would take longer to reach their destination.  Jade had learned early on that some metahumans just wanted to fight and a display of power would more than likely prompt someone to come looking.

"Uh... I think we should show some restraint," Jade called out as Ronin muttered something about beating the Chloroformaster. "This is a non violent crime. I'm sure he will come with us if he thinks there are no other option." She jogs slightly to catch up with the sword wielder, all the while drawing her glass into a floating hexagon shape. "Besides, we probably want to set an example for others like... Chloroformaster..." Even the name sounded lame. "I mean... if we go around kicking everyone's ass even if they surrendered then less bad guys would be willing to go peacefully, ya know?"  Would they actually? Hell if Jade knew.  She just didn't want to seriously beat up a guy who possibly had mental health issues.  Not to mention that she didn't want to end up as accessory to assault and battery.

"Don't you think it's kind of weird that the cops know where this guy lives but didn't do anything about it?" Jade asked as she lifted her dress (and herself by proxy) and floated after Ronin. "I mean, it's kinda strange right?" She was just running her mouth now but it was something that she tended to do when she got nervous.

"Huh. Plenty of glass. Good, don't wanna be caught off guard." Diana remarked at just how much glass Jade could control, and yet how moral she is in their use.

"...You know I'd be real afraid if you were ever a villain. Getting cut with glass is a nasty way to go. You know, I once saw a guy who liked to use glass... uh, nevermind." She said, changing her mind about a morbid story about people being skinned alive with glass. Diana speculated if Jade ever wondered just how deadly her power over glass could be.

"Non Violent? The jerk puts girls to sleep, takes naked pictures... and does... who knows what... Putting him behind bars is a service to women! Imagine if it happened to you." Diana's feminist colors were showing, and she had to calm herself down in front of her newest acquaintance.

Diana listened to Jade's concern about the police knowing the Chloroformaster's address. "Cops are too obvious, the perp will probably run the second they see a squad car. Besides, there's no guarantee they're home." Diana got her phone once again, and being a resourceful hero, summoned transportation for them with Uber.

A big yellow Humvee breaks at the corner, narrowly missing a Sorento. It barrels down the road. It swerves in a wide angle then breaks at the sidewalk where Diana and Jade waited.

"Yo I'm Letti, I'm your Uber Driver. get in." A young latina lady wearing leather biker wear and jeans looked at her passengers for the night. Diana seemed pleased at Letti's driving style. Letti took a glance at Jade. "No glass on the leather, use the trunk kid."

"I call shotgun." Diana says, and gets into the front passenger seat.

A frown appeared on Jade's lips as the Humvee pulled up to the side of the road and a woman called out to them.  Jade had several issues with what was happening right now.  First of all this driver refused to allow her to travel with her weapons of choice. She couldn't be sure that her glass would remain in tact with the way the Uber driver pulled up to the curb.  Not to mention that Humvees were a HUGE gas guzzler! Did this woman not think about the environment?  Some people were just so insensitive!

There was a pause as she debated her options but then finally decided that she would find her own way to the house of the alleged perpetrator. Or maybe he was guilty as all sins but Jade believed that the system would sort things out. She just needed to get things into the hands of the system.

"I'll just fly there, thanks though." Jade called to the driver. "I still need to collect more glass on the way there anyways!" With that there was a scraping noise as glass congealed around her and formed into a clear platform.  Jade performed a once over with her power to make sure that there were no sharp edges and then lifted into the air.  The smaller pieces of glass, the ones that were too tiny to do anything with were kept suspended around Jade to act like a cloud of sorts.

When she was done, Jade would seem to be floating on a cloud of dust.  She thought for a moment and then the hexagonal glass that she had been forming broke apart to reform as wings on her back.  The glass wings would connect with her multicolored dress.  The wings were not functional and would have weighed Jade down if it were not for her powers keeping the glass afloat but it looked pretty.

Jade used her powers to flex the hundreds of thousands of individual glass pieces that formed the wings and then soared into the air, letting the glass around her diffract light. To spectators she would look like a glowing angel on a cloud in the sky. Ah yes, shock and awe. Well more awe than shock but nevertheless, Jade felt that she was now ready to fight for women kind everywhere.

"Talk about subtle." Diana remarked at Jade just up and flying. The Humvee proved a more expedient means of reaching the target's residence... when Diana saw the most improbable thing ever.

Chloroformaster was walking home *in costume* carrying groceries. One bag was just full of chloroform.

"Stop the car!" Letti suddenly slammed the breaks, eliciting a very loud car horn from the car behind her. Diana quickly exits the car, leaving a small bundle of cash, and walks toward Chloroformaster.

"Hey buddy. Nice costume you got there. Are those chloroform bottles?" Diana said, getting a baseball from her backpack, tossing it back and forth between her hands.

"Huh? what? who are you?" He asked, clutching his precious Chloroform. He was eyeing a way to flee the scene.

"Shard? A little back up? Relax mister, I just want to talk." Diana called out to her ally, holding the baseball. Chloroformaster looked very tense indeed- him breaking out into a sprint just made Diana excited for the hunt, as she chucked the baseball at him- which, miraculous for Chloroformaster, struck a fire hydrant.

"Lucky son of a-" Diana cut her invective short and started running. For a skinny guy, Chloroformaster sure could run; he would, since he's had lots of practice.

Shard could not hear or see a damned thing while she was flying through the air. She nearly lost track of the Humvee multiple times, but its large gas guzzling eco destroying form was fortunately not hard to find again.  As she soared through the air after Ronin she went over the Miranda Rights.

"You have the right to remain silent," Shard breathed as she trailed behind the car, "anything you do or say can be used against you in the court of law. If you do not have a lawy- the fuck?" There was a screech as the Humvee abruptly pulled over to the side of the road and Ronin stepped out (or at least who she assumed was Ronin based on the stick thing on her back).  Oh that strange guy must have been Chloroformaster. Shard just thought he was a strangely dressed man... maybe she should fly lower from now on.

While Ronin called out to the man, Shard settled herself in his path and held out her palm... and suddenly realized that she didn't read his file thoroughly. She didn't even know his real name.

"Uh... Chloroform...aster... you're under arrest for, sexual assault and battery-" Shard called out just as Diana started to speak.  The man looked at the both of them and then began running... straight at Shard.  Though the man was thin for his height, Shard was thinner and so with his momentum he managed to run through her, pushing her to the ground.  

In the instant that they made contact, Shard gasped and dropped the glass that was hovering in the air around her.  She didn't want to cut him! Shard managed to collect herself as Ronin ran past her towards the perp. Without hesitating, the silicate manipulator flung her glass past the Chloroformaster to form three thick panes of glass in a U-formation hoping to contain him. If he rain into the glass there would be some cracks, but other than that he would not be able to break through.

"Back in the city." Maverick uttered under his breath as he overlooked the city streets of California. Plently of street lights illuminate the roads as he hopped off of a rooftop his body became imbued in electricity as he propelled himself forward and zoomed through the sky.

"What is there to do?" Maverick asked himself as he looked down, scanning the area for anything of interest. He craved any form of excitement, or at least something to capture his curiosity.

It was only people walking, nobody doing anything special. The people tonight weren't up to much.  "This is L.A. I could've sworn they do it big down here."

While scanning the L.A. streets he hear a loud thud and looked down to see a figure fleeing from another figure.  "Well would you look at that? We got ourselves a game of tag."  He said with a smirk on his face as he began to shadow the pursuit, paying close attention, tracking their every move.

As he followed them, he viewed the prey get captured in some type of glass construct trap. "The hell?" He whispered as he began to descend. He would land on the ground and would revert back to his normal appearance. "What's going on?" he shouted to the three people having an altercation trying to investigate the drama to get a better understanding.