“That’ll be $5.25,” the woman manning the ice cream stand said, smiling the plastic smile of customer service.
James tapped a phone on the kiosk and took his cone from the woman, contemplatively taking a nip from the top of the salted caramel ice cream, enjoying the velvety smooth but cold texture of dairy confectionery with the warm touches of salt traveling across his tongue.
James gave the woman a small smile, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
The woman nodded, this time her smile a little more real, ‘A guess the kid has some manners.’
He walked away, strolling through the park that rested on the outskirts of Empire University.
James stroll took him over the paths of the park, and he consciously avoided glancing at the people around him when he could avoid it.
Invading the thoughts of others still bothered him, not to mention that, for now, he wanted to be alone with his own thoughts.
“I’m a Villain, just like you, if the ‘Boss’ wants to stop me, let him try.”
It seemed a silly thing in the bright warm embrace of a summer's day, but he was a little on edge, the challenge toward the ‘Boss’ had tumbled over his lips with nary a second thought. He didn’t regret the words, but he was aware of the target he had painted on his back.
Not only would Heroes be after him for any villainous exploits he participated in, but this ‘Boss’ guy would now definitely know he was being targeted by someone.
He had purchased a tablet and disabled the internet capability of said tablet by removing the wifi adapter before taking the flash drives one by one and combing through them looking for malware and tracking programs.
He had admittedly expected to lose the tablet in the experience, but somehow had avoided that and had now obtained a wealth of information about at least a subsection of the operations of the ‘boss.’
Like, apparently, the ice cream vendor he had just interacted with.
Well, not her specifically, the software that her vendor tablet ran was apparently developed by a subsidiary of Adder Corp.
He wondered how much they sanitized their transaction inputs. He guessed he would find out. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long; he wasn’t particularly interested in sitting in this park all day.
James wandered to the edge of the park and took a seat underneath the shade of a tree, pulling at his white t-shirt a bit to give himself some air from the sweltering heat while he took another bite of his ice cream.
He remained on the bench for some time, taking in the warm summer day, letting his mind drift even as the software he had written did its slow work.
“Oh, it’s you,” came a deadpan voice from his side, and he turned to see Sam dressed in a somewhat tight jogging outfit with black spandex leggings and a form-fitting white t-shirt.
She shook her short, somewhat shaggy red hair that was noticeably damp with sweat, clearing it from her eyes as she looked down at James, “What cat got your tongue?” she asked, her lips twitching up, seemingly amused at him.
“Not exactly,” James responded wryly, “I was just a bit surprised to be addressed like that,” he shrugged his shoulders, eying the amused girl.
“What did you expect?” Sam chuckled, “We’re not friends yet, though I guess we could be?” The end of her tone was strangely questioning to James’s ears.
“Wouldn’t want to harsh your vibes,” James said dryly, “You don’t need to pretend to be nice or get to know me, I’m just a guy that also lives in your dorm.”
“That’s kind of a harsh way to look at it?” Sam pouted slightly at James, her expression actually seeming a little upset.
Jeez. Rude.
James considered just leaving the words as they were, but he realized he didn’t really want to. He’d had such minimal social contact recently, even someone like him, who avoided people, was starting to feel isolated.
“I,” James hesitated, trying to find the right words, “I’m sorry, that was a little much. Sorry.” He apologized twice, giving Sam a strained smile.
What a strange freshman, though I guess I shouldn’t be one to talk.
Sam gave him a lazy smile, her pout disappearing, “No worries, freshie, I was maybe being a little rude too. You seem like a cool guy, though.”
What a strange statement to say after lambasting the other person in your head.
“So whatcha doing here?” Sam asked him.
“Killing time mostly,” James said, “With only one class, I’m finding myself with too much of it, honestly.”
“There’s gotta be something interesting you can do for fun?” Sam said, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Well, I was, uh, people watching?” James said, realizing that he couldn’t exactly say what he was actually doing, so he picked the closest analogue he could think of.
That’s kind of sad.
James frowned at Sam’s thought.
Sam shrugged, collapsing backwards next to him onto the bench, though somehow she made the motion seem graceful.
This close, he could smell her sweat, not an awful scent, but distinctly feminine, and it made James uncomfortable.
“What’s the news with people?” she asked, looking about with him.
“Which one?” James asked somewhat dryly, cocking a brow full of amusement at the red head.
Sam tossed her head a bit, throwing her red hair out of her eyes as she gazed about with gleaming green eyes that seemed to sparkle in the afternoon light.
“Mmm, that one,” she pointed at an adult man walking side by side with a woman
James turned his head and was hit with a full blast of the man’s thoughts.
Why the hell do I have to do Liam’s work? I already got everything I had to do for the day, this is such fucking favoritism I-
James drew back, consciously attempting to just take in the man’s appearance rather than his thoughts, a new thing he had been working on, if at least partially for his own sanity. Only a small crease was on the man’s forehead, along with a small sheen of sweat as he was walking through the park in a full business suit.
James shrugged, “He’s stressed and frustrated,” he said, simply keeping the details to himself.
“Really?” Sam raised an eyebrow at him.
That’s probably my guess too, but I have my own training, he says it with such certainty…
“Yeah,” James shrugged his shoulders, choosing not to elaborate further. There was probably an ethical dilemma here for casually running through the man’s thoughts for the thrill of it, not to mention his own dislike for doing so.
Yet he also literally couldn’t help it unless he wanted to avoid looking at other people for the rest of his life; that’s just how it was. Even as he tried to work on his control, it still just happened so casually without his input.
“I don’t really see how this would be relaxing, though?” Sam mused, eyeing him with a small, amused smirk on her plush red lips.
James snorted despite himself, “I didn’t say it was relaxing. It’s just what I’m doing right now,” he said, the words feeling a little defensive despite his own intentions.
“I get it, I get it,” Sam raised her hands, “So what do you do to relax if sitting in the park isn’t it?”
What James would have said disappeared as his phone chimed, and he glanced at it.
Server Trace Back Complete
So he had the data now. Killer.
Well, no more reason to sit around here, he supposed. No rest for the wicked, and he at least qualified as a part-time Villain on account of the prior thefts he had been involved with.
And would be involved with again, at least with a singular known target, ‘the Boss’ who was a criminal, though that didn’t make it less of a crime.
“Well, I’ll see ya,” James waved lazily at Sam as he stood up.
Wow, I don’t know if I should be offended or not.
“Oh, that’s it, huh?” Sam gave him a small pout.
“Sorry about that,” James shrugged his shoulders, “Something’s come up.”
“Ana and I were planning on having dinner tonight, if you wanted to join…” Sam said, trailing off slightly.
“Oh yeah,” James said, “Sounds great.” his mind was already adrift as he focused on his next objective.
He waved a hand casually behind him in acknowledgement as he walked off.
-
James fiddled with his phone as he sat on top of a building, frowning down at the screen in thought.
The squat warehouse wasn’t much to look at, mostly the same as its other compatriots at the port, a dark blue color mostly covered by graffiti tags on the side.
Here was supposed to be a major operation of drug trafficking into the city. More specifically, it was supposed to be protected by ‘the Boss.’
It was a little big for him to chew, admittedly, and he was unsure of his current plan to put it mildly.
Drop in, beat the stuffing out of the guards who got in his way. Get the hell out of there, his recompense in tow.
He was sure from what he had discovered that there was a large amount of cash here, just waiting to be liberated for a better use.
Well, College tuition and housing were a use, at least that benefited him, maybe only questionably a better use per se.
He dismissed the concern from his mind with a push and looked down at the warehouse. He had two main objectives: get the money and destroy the drugs. Both should be significant blows to the ‘Boss.’
James took a deep breath and then let himself fall from the side of the building, and he watched with interest as the dark building rippled across his body, cloaked as it was with his mind.
His descent slowed with a small concentrated nudge of his mind, as his body’s motion was reduced with a small exertion of his thoughts, turning his fall into a slower dive, coming to a gentle halt on the concrete, tapping lightly on the ground.
Two men stood outside the side door he had picked as his entry point, smoke drifting lazily from the pair of them, tainting the air with the unmistakable smell of burning tobacco along with the other chemicals that made up their lit cigarettes that glowed like small embers in the dark.
James walked up to them until he stood directly in front of them.
He had to be careful here, too much force and these guys' heads would crack open.
He needed to hit them like Knight Walker.
He focused on letting his invisibility drop, finding it difficult to focus on the titration of his strength at the same time.
The men’s eyes barely had the chance to register him. A slight widening of the one on the left’s eyes was all that had time to occur before his right fist blurred out, aimed for the man on the left’s temple, colliding in less than a second, even as he spun his body, his left leg shooting into the air in a high kick aimed for the man on the right’s head.
The blows connected in the next instant with meaty thuds, the one on the left was slammed back into the wall with a loud thud, even as the man on the right dropped like a stone, unceremoniously crumpling to the ground.
James winced at the loud thud that came from the wall and took a deep breath, waiting for the men to get up.
They didn’t stir, their bodies heaps on the ground, a glance at their minds revealed a jumbled assortment of images which James could only think was likely because they were unconscious.
It seemed he had managed to calculate his force well enough.
James reached down with a gloved black hand, pulling the badge free from one of them, running it along the panel by the door, which beeped green.
James pulled the door open and stepped into a far more illuminated hallway with bright fluorescent lights on the ceiling.
With careful steps, James walked down the hallway until he turned a corner and arrived in the large central portion of the warehouse. Containers were stacked neatly all about, and he looked about, biting his lip as he attempted to think where the illicit goods were stored.
Well, when in doubt, follow the people.
He walked through aisles of boxes and pallets, somewhat awed despite himself by the sheer amount of stuff stored in the warehouse.
He heard the sound of low voices some feet away and followed that, twisting down a couple more aisles.
James found a pair of workers carrying a crate each as they walked through the aisles.
Letting his camouflage do the majority of the work, he followed them with his eyes narrowing
He glanced through their thoughts, finding them a jumble of words mainly focused on their task at hand and thoughts of their own tiredness.
James withdrew, shaking himself a bit. As nice as it might be to do a deep dive to figure out more, that would be too disorienting while also attempting to follow them quietly.
Across the concrete for several more steps before they passed in front of another crate like any other, but he had felt their attention linger on it for slightly longer. A focus and a direction unlike anything they had passed prior, though he didn’t quite catch the thoughts.
They continued walking, and James hesitated, waiting for them to turn a corner before kneeling in front of the crate.
He pressed his palm to the lid, stretching out his senses for a moment. There was something in here, alright. He pushed his gloved thumbs into the crack between the lid and crate and then pulled upward.
The wooden top resisted his efforts for a moment before it came free with a small creak as he eased it upward as gently as he could.
He peered inside and he spotted four duffle bags filled seemingly to the brim, with hard creases lining their sides.
Mouth suddenly slightly dry, James reached out, pulling the zipper down on one of them to see…
Packages of white powder filled the bag.
James didn’t need to be a pharmacist to guess what it could be.
He pulled the zippers down on the rest of them to see more of the same white packages.
“Well, I suppose this is the drug part of the drug trafficking,” James murmured to himself softly.
Now, where was the money?
James lowered the lid back down for the moment and stood up, and continued his walk through the warehouse, passing through the aisles till he found another guard.
The man walked with a laconic manner, but James was tense enough for both of them as he followed the guard, nudging lightly through the man’s mind, looking for any indication of where the money, if it was here, was stored.
Through the concrete aisles, they walked as James filtered through the man’s mind, hoping at some point a thought of money would rise to the surface.
Ten minutes passed this way with little progress made, and James felt the tension in his body ratcheting up as they walked.
It was as they passed one of the walls that James found an interesting stray thought pass through the man’s mind.
Man, what I wouldn’t give for a bit more of that cash, the Boss would definitely notice, then goodbye life and job.
Interestingly, the man’s attention had lingered on the wall for the briefest of moments.
James waited for the man to turn a corner and make some distance before he pressed his palm to the wall and closed his eyes, reaching out beyond his limbs.
Instantly, he felt the hard edges of what could only be a door and was about to yank it open before a stray thought had occurred to him.
If the Boss were any kind of intelligent person, wouldn’t they have an alarm system?
The drugs had been out in the open in a crate in a security through obscurity sort of sense, but this was cold, hard cash.
James hesitated, thinking it over in his head. There might not be alarms ready to be tripped, yet that seemed less likely considering the level of security and scale he had seen so far.
When he had infiltrated the first building, he had been spotted then as well.
True, he had developed a new ability with the invisibility he could generate around himself, but he had no idea about the limits of the ability yet. It could seemingly fool human vision, yet that wasn’t the only potential way that he could be spotted.
There was an unquantifiable technological element that he needed to be wary of.
James shook his head; he wasn’t going to back down now. If he had to, he would get the hell out of dodge, but here was a golden opportunity.
James nodded to himself and jogged back towards the northern part of the warehouse where he had seen gas canisters.
He grabbed one and walked back to the box he had found and begun dumping out the entire contents of the canister onto the duffle bags, making sure to soak all of them relatively equally.
Reaching into a pocket where he kept a small box of matches for this purpose, he struck one with a quick flick of his hands, the flame flaring brightly before he dropped it straight down onto the soaked duffle bags.
Flame erupted in a bright orange tongue instantly, and James turned and sprinted away, heading for the wall section he had found.
Within several seconds, he had made his way across the warehouse and was pressing his palms against the door.
With his tongue in between his teeth, he pushed to the side, pulling the door to the side.
Inside was a solid concrete room with several piles of duffle bags set side by side, these ones creased in a different way than the other ones had been.
James sprinted forward and grabbed one of the zippers of one of the bags, pulling it down, and instant relief filled his gut as he saw piles of the green paper that he had been unsure until that very moment whether they would actually contain.
He pulled another zipper of a bag down and smiled as the same green greeted his eyes.
He closed the bags rapidly and shrugged them over his shoulders, taking the additional weight with ease.
He heard a loud ringing erupt as the fire he had set evidently had taken enough hold to trigger the alarm in the warehouse.
His mouth quirked down as he looked at the other bags, cursing that he couldn’t take more, but he was sure he was running on limited time right now.
He turned and sprinted out of the room. Down the aisles he raced until he found the door he had entered, and he burst through it before leaping into the dark. The warm air of summer ripped past him as he soared onto the roof of a building, landing with a thud against the concrete.
James felt a small grin tear across his lips as he kept running.
-
James groaned as he shifted in his dorm room bed. As he rose unwillingly back to consciousness, heralded by the chiming of his phone, he couldn’t help but feel the satisfaction from his late-night work coming to the forefront.
It probably wasn’t much, but it was at least something, a small blow against ‘the Boss,’ and he had accomplished it on his own.
He stumbled out of bed and got ready for his day, idly checking his phone for the local news.
It was a couple of pages back, but he spotted an article about a warehouse fire breaking out, matching the address of the one he had been to, though there was no mention of anything else untoward being discovered.
James wasn’t surprised; he figured that would be the maximum of what was said.
The building, of course, was relatively fine, as the fire he had set did little actual damage outside of the container of drugs.
The disruption, though he imagined was at least somewhat significant, there would likely be heavier guards and different locations used out of fear for a while.
It was kind of a hollow victory, though he realized the more he thought about it. He hadn’t really changed anything. Hadn’t really made a difference.
‘The Boss’ would continue on with their operations with a small nick, but that was the end of it.
What could he really do, though?
Should he call the police when he left a location to get them arrested? He didn’t have an overwhelming amount of faith in that arm of the government.
James sighed, a small amount of glumness seeping through him. In the moment, he had felt like he was doing something, but as the larger reality reasserted itself, he realized that in the grand scheme, he had changed nothing.
Besides endangering himself, that was, at least in the sense of if Silver Ghost had shown up again.
James shook himself and finally pulled a shirt over his head as he went to exit his dorm.
He opened the door and walked out, almost stumbling directly into Sam, who was dressed in a crop top and jeans with a high-fashion looking bag over her shoulder as she checked down at her phone.
She glanced up as she spotted him and raised an eyebrow, “Have something important come up last night?” she asked somewhat dryly.
James blinked, surprised, looking down at the girl, “Uh, what’re you talking about?” he asked, drawing a blank.
“You said you’d go to dinner with Ana and I?” Sam cocked her head raising an eyebrow at him amusement mixed with a small amount of irritation seemingly trailing lazily over her face shifting her red hair free from her emerald eyes with an elegant shift of her neck.
Oh, right, James had completely forgotten.
“Fuck,” James blurted out and he saw Sam’s eyebrows shoot higher amusement beginning to dominate more of her face, he reigned himself in, “I’m sorry Sam, yeah some stuff at work came up,” he made up on the spot.
“Oh, where do you work?” Sam asked with interest, floating lazily over her features, her eyes gleaming ever so slightly.
“Hellen’s Bar,” James shrugged his shoulders, “It’s not much, but it helps pay for things.”
“Cool,” Sam drawled out, “Let’s exchange numbers though so next time something comes up you don’t leave Ana and me wondering where you disappeared to, huh?”
James blinked, surprised at the offer. He was unsure of why Sam had extended the offer earlier for dinner and was even more surprised now that Sam seemed to be pushing forward despite his ditching the pair.
“Um, okay,” James shrugged, “Don’t feel like you have to though, right?” he tried to establish reassurance that she wasn’t taking any of this seriously.
“I don’t,” Sam said simply, “Ana is just set on making friends with you, and I’m helping her.”
“Oh, uh, sorry?” James said, his lips quirking down in a frown, he resisted the urge to glance deeper into Sam’s thoughts.
Sam groaned, pressing a palm to her face, “Don’t apologize. Just smile, nod, and give me the number.”
James was truly tempted for a moment to look into Sam’s mind to determine what was going on, but immediately suppressed the temptation. Unless he truly needed to, he wasn’t going to violate someone’s privacy like that.
“Uh, yeah, sure,” he said.
-
If James thought he would have to wait long to be contacted, he would have been wrong.
He had taken a seat at a local café and was tapping out another potential search algorithm on the tablet as he combed through the data on the drives.
It was easy, he reflected, to get caught up in this work with relatively few other responsibilities besides waiting tables at Hellens and the singular class he was taking.
The programming itself didn’t speak much to him, but it was undoubtedly a useful tool as he tried to find another target.
Though perhaps he should have been considering how to have a larger effect first.
Really, maybe he should consider trying to be a hero. He didn’t think he’d have to do this much research to stop crime. Go out, find the bad guys, take 'em down, mission complete.
Picking appropriate targets to heist was a serious drag.
Though he supposed it was more profitable than being a hero, he could still justify part of this for being about the money. He rather doubted Heroes got to keep the cash when they went after criminal elements.
His phone buzzed, letting off a generic ring tone he hadn’t bothered to change. Frowning, James reached down and pulled out the device and saw it was an unidentified number. He contemplated hanging up for a moment before curiosity won out and he answered the call.
“Hello James!” a bright, feminine voice chimed over the phone’s speaker.
“Uh, hello?” James asked, unable to keep the bemusement out of his tone.
“It’s Ana! Sam gave me your phone number!” the girl identified herself, seemingly unable to contain herself.
“Ah, I see,” James said, despite himself, his lips quirked upward, “Did you need something?”
There was a long moment of silence, and James frowned, checking his phone to see if the call had disconnected.
“Uh, hello?” James asked again.
“We were-“ a muffled thud was heard through the speaker. “I,” she enunciated clearly, “Was wondering if you’d want to get a tour around campus?” Ana finally said, her tone sounding somewhat strained.
James contemplated the question for a moment, but it didn’t quite make sense. For a person such as him, who had so little to do with friendship and human contact, he didn’t quite understand the effort Ana was making. He certainly had not been returning the effort, though not because he didn’t like the girl; she was actually rather pleasant, he just didn’t know what to make of her.
Yet it wouldn’t feel right to turn down the offer out of hand. He didn’t have a reason to avoid her besides his own issues with people, magnified by his abilities.
“Sure, did you have somewhere you’d like to meet?” he asked.
“Oh great!” Ana exclaimed before a couple of muffled words were exchanged with someone in the background, “I can just meet you wherever you are right now!” she said cheerfully.
James blinked in surprise but nodded his head regardless, “I’m at the Bear Café, do you know it?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s great!” Ana said, “I’m actually near there, I’ll see you in a second!”
The call abruptly hung up, and James was left staring rather stupidly at his phone screen, not having expected the rapid development.
Not a minute later, the bell chimed in the café, and in walked Ana with a cheerful smile on her face, her eyes locking onto Jame’s face in a second.
“Heya!” she greeted, waving a hand as she took a seat opposite him.
James let an amused smile appear on his face, “Well, that was quick. You really were close, huh? Who were you with?”
“With?” Ana cocked her head, dazzling blue eyes squinting with confusion as her blonde hair tilted and draped about her head with the motion.
“Oh,” James shrugged, “I thought I heard you talking with someone in the background, I guess I was mistaken.”
Damnit, Sam!”
“Oh, haha, there were some people around me, I guess my phone picked up their voices.”
Well, she was definitely lying, but why?
James shook the thought away; it probably didn’t really matter. “So you were going to show me around campus?” he asked.
“Totally!” Ana grinned.
James closed his work on his laptop and stood up as he packed away his things before following Ana out of the café.
They existed into the early afternoon sun, and Ana spun around so she was walking backwards as she focused on James
“So any part of campus you’re interested in seeing?” she asked.
James frowned in thought, before shrugging his shoulders, “Nothing in particular comes to mind, do you have some interesting places you like to go?”
Ana tapped her plush red lips a couple of times thoughtfully, all the while she continued walking backwards, seemingly having absolute confidence in her agility.
“Well, you’re still undecided about what you want to study, right? What if I take you to the Aerospace building? They’re always working on something interesting.”
That actually did sound interesting. The café that James had been at was only a little way off campus, so they trekked back in the warm summer air, enough to make James sweat slightly, though Ana seemed completely unbothered.
The Aerospace building was a massive white stone construct, with the sharp rectangular lines of modern construction, numerous glass windows, and a pair of glass doors at the side through which they entered.
Ana began to chatter away about the rooms they passed, pointing out rooms full of computers, and then further in workshops with various heavy machinery that Ana explained was for helping construct the designs the students came up with.
A singular swipe of an ID card, Ana had entered them into the workshop as they walked about some large projects that had not found a home yet.
James found himself rather out of his depth as he hadn’t yet spent much time acquiring knowledge on engineering.
Yet the way Ana talked about it made the entire process sound fascinating. Though at times he found himself hanging on for dear life to keep up with the technological terminology.
He considered perhaps stealing a glimpse of her thoughts, but figured a glimpse of a professor would be more illuminating with less chance of receiving wrong information. He thought that Ana was obviously rather intelligent, but she was only a sophomore. A more complete picture from a professor would likely be far more informative.
Plus, for some reason, the idea of purposely invading Ana’s mind when it wasn’t necessary bothered him. She had been nothing but nice to him. He didn’t need to invade the thoughts of a nineteen-year-old girl just to satisfy his curiosity while putting her privacy at risk.
Admittedly, a hypocritical thought considering what he had done so far, but James decided for now that it was okay to be at least somewhat of a hypocrite.
They walked and talked as Ana gave him the tour until they settled down in a café for a bit, each grabbing a drink, with Ana grabbing some monstrous icy sugar concoction and James settling for an iced tea.
“So what do you think?” Ana asked, her eyes gleaming with interest and her mind projecting as such.
“It’s actually pretty interesting,” James said, a small smile emerging on his face from the girl’s enthusiasm, “Not sure I’d say I want to major in it quite yet, but the possibility is there.”
“You totally should!” Ana exclaimed, “I could help you with any classes that you struggle with!”
“I’ll definitely consider it,” was all the promise James was willing to make right now.
“Oh, come on, it wouldn’t hurt,” Ana said, shrugging her shoulders, making the motion look oddly graceful even as it did interesting things to her chest, her breasts shifting with motion, jutting them out as she tossed her golden mane.
James’s eyes flicked to the side uneasily as he made sure his gaze didn’t drift. Sam had said that Ana was interested in making friends, but wasn’t this too friendly?
James looked back and caught the faintest hint of satisfaction from Ana before it disappeared so quickly he thought he might have imagined it.
“So anything else you want to see?” she asked, the question innocent yet somehow dragging James’s thoughts in a wholly inappropriate direction.
“Well,” James gave the question some thought, “Could you show me any of the other buildings on campus, I heard we have a small museum of natural history?”
“Totally!” Ana beamed.
-
Another night. Another target.
Though James thought he had prepared himself far more this time.
He had discovered a chop shop for European luxury cars, masquerading as a normal car garage, something that was totally small time yet still had the presence of Adder Corporation, regardless, at least from the files he had taken.
He had given more consideration to how to disrupt this operation, and given much more thought than he had given to the last one. He didn’t want to resort to arson in this area; there were too many nonaffiliated buildings around.
He had decided on a simple solution. Given that the operation was openly illegal, unlike a nondescript warehouse, any amount of Police presence should do the trick once the people within were dealt with; the police couldn’t all be on ‘the Boss’s’ payroll.
That also meant that he should probably knock out all the guards here this time. He didn’t want one of the officers to get shot as they rolled up.
He had also given much more thought to how he was going to profit from this encounter as well, after all, he certainly wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of his heart.
That had led to his acquisition of a number of burner phones that he had programmed to contact 911 with the location they were at. A simple brute force solution to get the police where he needed them, but he believed it should be effective.
After, of course, he got out of there.
He had taken a position on top of the roof of the garage as he looked down at the lot, which had a number of cars within, many of them painted bright garish colors, signifying their identity as sports cars if their sleek and svelte forms did not indicate as such, regardless. They were all of them serious luxury vehicles, all of them stolen, waiting for a new vehicle identification number so they could actually be sold, unlike the hot product they were currently.
James contemplated the ethics of interfering with an operation concerning mere theft for several seconds, but shrugged the thought away. They were all criminals in this situation; there was no moral high ground to be taken.
Given the choice between his own wants and desires and the people currently chopping up cars, he picked himself.
He focused, cloaking himself with a flex of his mind, and his body turned invisible.
He leaped into the evening light, soaring down to touch lightly to the ground, landing several steps away from two men who were fiddling around the frame of a sports car.
More bulky men in the shop worked a short distance away at a rather industrious pace, moving about and under the vehicles, sparks erupting, and the sound of saws and drills going as they took some of them apart and put others together.
He relaxed his mind, allowing himself to come into view as he didn’t trust managing the invisibility as well as titrating his strength at the same time while in the midst of moving about.
Not a single person looked at him, and James couldn’t help but shrug to himself.
He hadn’t exactly announced his presence, but he had thought more would come from his action.
“Uh, Hello?” James said aloud, feeling slightly foolish as he looked about, waiting for the first punch to come swinging at him, or more likely a bullet.
One of the men near him turned around and then turned back before doing a double-take, sputtering as he looked at James.
“What the hell are you wearing?” the man said.
Given that James was dressed in all black, he didn’t really know which part of his outfit the man was referring to.
“Is that really your question?” James asked somewhat bemused despite himself.
The man seemed to regain himself as he looked at James, as he seemed to start to adjust to the strange circumstances he had found himself in.
“I- you some kind of hero?!” the man exclaimed.
A part of James was beginning to wish he had just started a beat down, but he wasn’t entirely comfortable beating down people who seemed to just be working on cars. Illegal activities, regardless, seemed excessive.
“Uh, that’s a tough question,” James said, “I don’t suppose you’d all like to sit down and wait to be arrested?”
The man snarled, and his hand shot to his waistband, where James knew the man was carrying a gun from his thoughts.
Of course, the man was not as fast as his thoughts, so James had known well in advance what the man was going to attempt.
James' feet were already grinding into the ground as he blurred forward, catching the man’s arm to the side before he completed the motion with his free hand, decking him across the face.
The man collapsed with a thud, knocked completely unconscious from the well-honed technique that James had borrowed from Knight Walker.
Their conversation had seemingly caught the attention of the other workers, and James saw the entire group startled into a hub of activity like a kicked-over ant hill.
James sprinted forward before cornering around a car and taking a mechanic who had startled, jerking upward, looking about, to the ground, easily knocking him unconscious as well.
Shouts and threats erupted throughout the garage as James cleared a car with a hop, taking two mechanics to the ground with solid thuds, disabling them in seconds.
James spun as borrowed instinct and his own senses informed him of the running footsteps coming around a car before a group of three emerged holding pistols in their hands.
They hadn’t aimed them yet, and even as they spotted him, James knew time was on his side.
He sprinted forward, pressing his feet to the ground, making full contact before he launched himself forward, buzz sawing his body rapidly through the men with a judicious use of force. Still concentrated on making sure he caused no lasting harm to the men.
The men were so dispersed it was relatively easy using Knight Walker’s skill to cross the distance in the garage, taking out one by slamming him into a car. Dropping another in a chokehold as he attempted to stand up.
He took the last one down with a single clean punch as he hid behind a truck, his pistol drawn, but forgetting that he should also look above him, which was the direction James had taken with a leap over the car.
He had then grabbed some lengths of chain and, with some maneuvering, had bound the men in a large bundle in front of the shop.
It had been the second-to-last person who had informed him, mentally, not verbally, where the group kept their cash stores, as he had seemingly been the owner of the shop.
James entered an unused car bay and shifted a shelf easily to the side as it was on a rail to reveal a large metal safe that came up to about his knees.
James pressed a palm against the safe and, with a shift of his mind, shifted the lock into alignment, opening the metal box; there sat stacks of paper cash. Nothing compared to what he had taken before, but he supposed this operation wasn’t really acting like a storehouse.
“Damn, that’s it huh, you guys were totally small time,” James mumbled to himself.
“They were,” a smooth feminine voice reaffirmed from behind him, and James spun to see… a woman?
She was evidently a young woman that much was evident, she was wrapped in form fitting black armor, including a full mask, with tints of dark red stretched across her suit, it actually sort of reminded him of Knight Walker’s outfit, though Knight Walker from the little he had seen of her had a black cape, this woman didn’t.
Her mind, though, was just as unnaturally still as Knight Walkers, though there was something oddly familiar about that stillness.
“Uh,” James raised his hands up in the air, “I’m on your side?” he said somewhat questioningly.
The young woman placed a hand on a cocked hip the only thing visible were red lenses where her eyes were supposed to be, the rest obscured.
“Well, you’re certainly not on their side,” the woman bobbed her head in acknowledgement, angled slightly to point back towards the garage where James had left the beaten forms of the operators of this chop shop.
James nodded slowly in agreement, attempting to figure out who this person was, but her appearance didn’t ring any bells.
“Well, who are you?” James asked.
“I’m Falcon,” the woman shrugged her shoulders, and James noted that even as compressed as it likely was, she was remarkably chesty, “And you are?”
The woman’s nonchalance took James aback, but he realized he probably needed an answer.
“Uh,” James hesitated before deciding to give the truth for once, “Honestly, I hadn’t worked that one out yet.”
“Fair enough,” Falcon responded evenly, “In this kind of business, you want a good one.”
“Right,” James nodded in agreement, “Totally.”
A long, awkward silence passed as they stared at each other. Or at least it seemed that way, given that he couldn’t see her eyes while his were exposed by his half mask that left them visible.
“You're kind of hard to focus on, what’s with that?” Falcon said her voice was just as even as before.
“Uh, don’t worry about it,” James said, before turning back to the safe, considering his options quickly, “Well, I think I’m done here,” he remarked, attempting to stay casual, “I’ll just call in the folks in blue and they can take the rest of it from here.”
He turned away, grabbing one of his burner phones, ready to hit the speed dial that would set the police call in motion.
“You really think this is a good idea?” Falcon asked.
James froze, hesitating slightly, but he didn’t turn around.
“I’m not really interested in good ideas,” he said evenly, “I’m doing what I have to do.”
Falcon responded, “It starts out that way for a lot of us, but are you really, truly sure you have to do this? Devil’s Rest has a dark side you don’t want to see.”
James was well aware there was a dark side. He had always been on the edge of it. Hell, he was still very much on the edge. Not one of the true deep, dark villains, yet nowhere close to a hero.
“I don’t mind you doing your own hero thing,” James said simply, “You’re doing it to help people, I respect it,” he really did, he had said as much on the first day of his ‘Ethics and the Law’ course. Without superheroes, there was no one to truly check the deranged.
He was just a part-time villain with a vendetta; he didn’t care for the other stuff.
“Just let me do my thing and we’ll get along fine,” James finished.
Falcon didn’t respond for a long moment before finally she spoke again, “I can’t really talk, but I think you should really consider it.”
“Who says I haven’t?” James asked mildly, offended, an edge bleeding into his voice.
“You think you have, I bet,” Falcon said, her voice in the same calm tone that was beginning to get on Jame’s nerves.
Who was this girl to tell him what he was thinking, what he was feeling?
Instantly, James reigned in the emotions, “You said it yourself, you’re not the one to be talking, that line of conversation’s not going to work with me.”
It wasn’t like James thought his pain or his trauma was more than Falcon’s; he didn’t know the girl.
Yet he was committed at this point; he was going to see this through for nothing else if not a better life.
“I’ll see you around,” James said, pressing the dial on the phone before dropping it and beginning to run off.
His feet pounded the ground in an even rhythm, exiting the garage in a blur before leaping for a building and then another, making distance from Falcon.
The conversation had unsettled him, but he was still sure about the path he was taking.
Though…
“I’m going to have to figure out a name, aren’t I?” he muttered under his breath.
Consistent encounters with other Heroes and Villains meant that it was only a matter of time till he was given one, regardless, and there were some truly stupid examples that he’d rather not have to call his own.