The cold November air above Atlas Park hung in the air as two students made their way to school. They made their way carefully along the route they had done a thousand times before, past the Police Drones, and the occasional mugging in progress, keeping an eye out for any Hellions not preoccupied with robbing someone already. Both students, one boy and one girl, didn't look much older than thirteen, both dressed in the uniform of Paragon City Private School.
As they rounded the corner that led to the final block of their daily commute, a small group of red bandanna clad men walked up to them, three armed with baseball bats, one with a gun, and the last, unarmed. Beneath their bandanna's, one would detect the unmistakable smirk of a man who knows he has his prey outnumbered and outgunned.
"Well, well boys... Look what we have here..." The man with the gun said, looking over the students in front of him, "Two little lovebirds on the way to school."
"Heh... Wonder if they got anythin' good on em." The unarmed man stated, beginning to pace around them, sizing them up as he did so.
"L-Look...W-We're not looking for any trouble... besides... we'll be late." The young girl said, her voice shaky with fear, "You can take all our money... just... don't hurt us..." She said as she began to remove her purse.
Out of no-where, one of them men with the baseball bats swung it full force, cracking one of his club-wielding compatriots clean in the face with it, rendering him unconscious in a flash, causing his friends too look at the man in confusion, his eyes vacant and dull, still brandishing his weapon as he took a swing at the man with the gun.
"What the hell?!" The unarmed assailant shouted in surprise, rushing forward to try and disarm his friend, only to be met with a eruption of pavement beneath his feet, propelling him skyward, and causing him to crash down, a few feet from where he had started his dash, with a loud, bone-crunching thud.
Both the students and the Hellions looked around in confusion, looking for the source of these sudden displays of power, bewildered by the actions. A mass of shadows began appearing in between the remaining four ruffians, before exploding outward violently, to reveal a man clad in black with twin blades glowing, and a sadistic grin.
The two students glanced at the sudden confusion, as the Hellions merely took a moment to get up, staggering slightly from the sudden burst, turning their attention to the man clad in black, allowing the Students a moment to run from the scene.
"Who the fuck are you?!" The gun wielding thug cried, steadying his handgun as he pointed it at the man clad in black, his eyes betraying the confidence in his aim.
The man clad in black grinned, his eyes shimmering the same color of the grass after a battle, as he raised his blades to shoulder length, before bringing them down in a quick 'X' formation, shadows rippling around the blades, propelling the air around them towards the gun-toting ruffian, causing deep gashes to form on his arms and legs. The ruffian dropped the gun, falling to the ground as he let out a loud cry of pain, as the man clad in black glanced around at his remaining opponents.
"Who's feeling lucky?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper as his grin parted slightly to reveal a bright canine tooth, before vanishing in a plume of Shadows, appearing behind another club-brandishing assailant, his blades crossed at the man's neck. "Don't move, or I'll kill him." The black-clad man said with a dark gravitas to his voice.
As the two other ruffians tried to gather what was going on, a younger man clad in bright purple and gold robes floated down with an almost angelic grace, placing his hand on the shoulder of one of the ruffians. "I'd suggest listening to him... He'd probably do it." He said, a soothing yet powerful tone to his voice.
"Who the fuck are you guys?!" The last ruffian shouted, before being caught in a powerful stone prison, his feet rooted to the ground, encased in the very pavement he had only half a second been standing on quite shakily. As the ruffian struggled, a hulking brute of a man brandishing a hammer made of an I-beam and concrete stepped out from the nearby alleyway. "We're the good guys." The brute said with a grin, his muscles barely contained under the tank-top and jeans he was wearing as a crime-fighting costume.
As the police arrived a few minutes later, the Brute, and man clad in black had vanished, only leaving the younger man to deal with the inevitable questions. The police chuckled as they usually did when they had to deal with some of the newer superheroes in the city.
"So... What's your name, kid?" An older officer asked, his gray hair disheveled from having been woken up to come deal with such an early morning mugging.
"I am known as the Mind Magister." The young man said, his black hair framing his face, but his eye-glasses framing his bright purple eyes, "If you're in need of the hero licenses of the other ones involved in this arrest... I have them here." He said with an air of confident formality.
"Nah... I just need the names." The officer replied, giving the young man a clap on the shoulder, "You guys just starting out?" He asked, with an almost curious tone.
"Yes... We just got our licenses a week ago." The young man added as he smiled, "The other two heroes involved were Heartstrike, and Runetotem. They're my brothers."
As the officer wrote this information down, he took a quick look at the young man. "Heh, you boys should be in school... but if you wanna fight crime, I'm not gonna tell ya how to live your lives." He said as he closed up his notebook, "Good work though, on your first mugging. Some new heroes underestimate Hellions. They can be nasty if they catch you off-guard."
The cleanup went swimmingly, the pavement easily restored as the young man began to fly off into the distance, landing on a nearby rooftop, the man clad in black and the brute sitting on the edge of the building.
"You know... Maurussus, It would be nice if you didn't leave me to talk to the police every time we stop a crime." The younger man said, adjusting his glasses as he landed.
"You know how it is, 'Lincey." the Black-clad Man said with a grin, "You're the goody-two-shoes. I'm the face." He added with a wink, before elbowing the brute, "And Rune's always been the muscle."
Runetotem sighed as he stood up, dusting off his camouflage pants and running a hand through his shaggy brown hair, "Yeah... But I still whoop your ass in chess, Maur." He said with a grin, as Maurussus stood up, pulling the hood up on his black cloak, his blades sheathed on either side, "Chess is boring." was the only reply from the roguish hero.
Alincey cut in as he glanced between his two brothers. "We should be getting back, Damien might start to worry if we're out too long."
The other two boys nodded, glancing out at the cold morning, "Besides..." Maurussus said as Alincey started to hover, "We check in, then we go out and kick some more ass."
