I own nothing but my OC, and the plot…..Sadly.
Chapter 3
I growled and scribbled out another building off of my map. I shuffled through the newspaper clippings I had laid across the table, all the ones I could find that mentioned this 'Purple Dragons' group. So far, I had found tons of mentions, arrests, and crimes… but nothing that helped me figure out how to find them. I tried not to scream in frustration, not in this VERY public library. I had already chased off some very grumpy college students earlier, I didn't want to look any more insane than I already did. I preferred to be by myself while I searched for an apparently dangerous crime groups hideout... after all, I wasn't sure if doing so was entirely legal.
I flipped through another paper, scanning the crime section with a frown. So far, this group seemed to have a fairly normal range of crime… small robberies, car snatching, the random violent acts here and there… it wasn't all that impressive. 'Then again…' I thought, shuffling through the papers. 'These ones ARE from almost a decade ago. I need to look at more recent ones.' I blinked in surprise as I pulled out one from about four years ago… that had this criminal gang plastered all over the front page. I furrowed my brows as I glazed over the page.
"Seems like you guys upped your game…" I muttered, before grabbing the next page. "Wonder why?" I leaned my chin on my hand as I flipped though, growing more impressed as the greatness of crimes grew with each page. 'They go from purse snatching to an organized crime organization in… less than two years? Now how the hell does that work…?' I was jolted from my thoughts with a polite, but tired, "Miss?" I looked up at the tired looking library worker. "Place is about to close." She informed me. I nodded, packing up my stuff. "Alright, thank you!" I started to stand, then a shocked intake of breath sounded. I turned to the girl with a raised eyebrow.
She looked over my news clippings with a surprised, and slightly concerned look. I slapped my hand over the map, but I could tell by her look she had a good idea of what I was doing. "… Corner of Eastman and Laird, every Sunday," she muttered lowly. I blinked in surprise, and she gave me a weak smile. "Might be outdated info, but maybe it'll help." Her expression turned deadly serious. "Just… be careful. These guys are dangerous, believe me…" I nodded slowly, marking the location, before looking up at her. "Thank you, um…" I glanced at her nametag, "… Angel." Angel smiled, brushing back black and purple eyes hair from her face. "Good luck." She said sincerely, before walking away.
I smiled, grabbing my stuff before running out into the darkening city of New York, the sun starting to sink far behind the buildings. I started facing over to my apartment, a smirk growing. Why? Because tonight just happened to be Sunday…
I laughed softly as I launched myself across another rooftop, the light rain just starting to fall on my head. Normally I would just be excited to knock some heads… but tonight, this was better. This was like a real mission. So real, I couldn't help but glance over my shoulder, expecting my teammate to be matching his speed with mine… only to feel like a idiot when nothing was there. 'Great, Victoria,' I thought with a eye roll. 'You're turning into a lonely, wanting teenager with issues… yuck.' I forced away my emotions, and focused on making the next jump. I paused when I reached the edge, looking out to the dimly lighted street. The crumbling buildings, grime covered windows was a big clue that this place, Eastman and Laird, wasn't exactly in tip-top condition... which probably meant that there really was a gang meeting around here.
I ducked down slightly, stalking along the rooftops, eyes searching for anything suspicious. I paused when I spotted a trench coat wearing man leaning against a fence in front of a warehouse. I watched quietly as two thugs stumbled over, clearly drunk. I squinted, trying to see what they were discussing down there. I blinked as one of the drunk dudes rolled up his sleeve to show a purple splotch on his arm… close up, I have a strong feeling it was a dragon. As those two walked into the warehouse, I frowned. 'To officially get in, you need ink… looks like I'll have to go in the old fashion way.' I slipped over to the nearest fire escape, sliding down into the dark alley silently.
I glanced out quietly, scanning the streets for any witnesses, before I darted out of the alley and into the street… and barely managed to avoid getting run over by a barreling truck. I slid into a pile of garbage as the truck slammed on its brakes, 'A moment too late, dumbass' I thought bitterly, before the driver jumped out. "Bro, the hell was that?! Looked like a deer!" I heard from the only man in New york who apparently doesn't know what a human looks like. A smartass comment was made, and I waited until they drove off towards the warehouse before I poked my head out. I glanced behind me, then I jogged over to the vacant side of the warehouse.
'Great, no fire escape.' I sighed internally.
I grabbed out my kunais from my backpack, prayed that the brick wall was as thick as I hoped, then stabbed the blade into the cement. I waited a second, listening for a stunned cry from the inside… once I deemed that my blade hadn't stunned anyone inside, I pulled myself up, and began scaling up the wall. I pulled myself into the roof, amazed by the fact that these people weren't bright enough to have guards posted in the roof… Sucks for them, great for me. My eyes lighted up when I spotted the skylight in the middle of the roof. Pulling my hood closer around my face to keep out the growing rainfall, I walked over to the edge of the skylight, before crouching and looking down to the scene below.
'… Is that a… caged wrestling ring?' I thought, looking down with a raised bros at this unique setting. The ring was surrounded with stands, and a large number of punk-rock kids, inked teens, and unfortunate Mohawk wearing adults. Yuck. I narrowed my eyes as I started recognizing some of the punks, low-life's who I may or may not have beat the crap out off… at one point or another. Trench-coat came inside, shutting the large metal doors behind him with a clang. The people inside started to settle down, leaning against the wall or taking seats… something was about to go down. I shifted a bit closer over the skylight, making sure I got a good view as somebody walked out to the middle of the ring.
"Ok, all ya, shut up and listen up!" A loud, booming accented voice called out, the people around him quieting down enough for him to speak. I saw the man smirk with arrogance, holding himself up with his inflated ego. "Ok, so we've lost 'bout 30 of our men to the ninja-freak runnin' around… and since 'm in charge until Hun comes back, guess who's fault it's gonna be?" He waited for a moment, listening to the crowd mumble it's answers. "That's right, Mine! And that ain't happenin' not if I got something to say 'bout it!" He insisted, and I curiously listened. 'Is… this guy saying I'm a legit threat to this group?' I asked myself, flattered. I tuned back in after a second.
"Alright, we need to get this sonofabitch outta our turf before the boss comes back… alive, dead, broken beyond repair, I don't give a crap!" He growled, I frowned, trying to remember if it seen anything about this 'boss' of theirs in the paper… apparently not. "If any of ya managed to take them down... " I saw him pause momentarily, and struggled not to laugh. This dude was so unprepared, he didn't have a reward planned out! I started tuning him out, thinking about how I was going to get him to chat with me… Grabbing my bag, I shuffled through my stuff before smirking at my find.
"This will be fun…" I murmured, holding the small grey ball in my hand. Slowly cracking open the skylight panel, I held the ball right above the wrestling ring… before letting it drop, and shutting the panel carelessly with a clang. A moment later, a small, but noticeable Boom sounded… and even more noticeably, the room below became clouded in smoke. I chuckled quietly at the sounds of confusion and uneasiness erupt from below, and I stood up, grabbing my kunai. ' This will be fun…' I thought with a smirk, opening the panel with my foot, fully prepared to leap in…
Only to throw my kunai across the roof, eyes locked on the noise I heard. "Alright… Quit messing around, I know you're up here." I said, switching my voice to a blank tone, easily hiding my feminine voice. I waited patiently, shutting the panel again. The smoke was starting to leak out, I didn't want it clouding my vision. I waited, before sighing, walking over to pick up my kunai. "Alright, fine. I'm off then… later." I waited a moment, before starting to walk off… and a moment later, really wish I had followed my gut and turned around before I was dragged away from the warehouse roof, a strong arm pinning my own to my sides, and a hand clamped over the mouth section of my mask, which prevented me from biting the hell out of this guys hand. That didn't stop my legs from kicking furiously, though, and I took advantage of that. Everytime I tried to knock him senseless with a headbang, the back of my head made contact with plastic, and not flesh and none like if hoped.
We were about three-four rooftops away, before I was released, obviously not on purpose, probably due to the damage my feet had some to this guys knees. I whipped around, kunai out and ready to fight the guy who had taken me away from the P.D.s headquarters. I paused, glancing at the cursing figure, who was leaning against a staff of some type. After a long string of curses, the figure finally straightened, then looked at me. I frowned at the white mask on his face, and shifted my grip on my blade, waiting for his reaction.
"Well, damn, have you gotta one hell of a kick!" he laughed, and I froze monetarily. "The guys might appreciate that bit of info later!" I wasn't focusing on his words, but rather his voice. I wasn't surprised, per say… but it was still surprising to hear Casey Jones actually talking/ kidnapping? My vigilante persona. I mean, it wasn't surprising that he fought crime in his free time, that was believable… but the fact he was intreasted in talking to the crime-fighting version of me?
That meant one of two things, One: He knew it was me, and was probably about to tell me off on not being careful… Or, he had no idea it was me, and was being stupid by getting in a trained vigilantes face. Either way, I was almost positive that the next few minutes were about to get very intresting…
(And if chapter three! Really wanted to thank all my readers real fast, and also wanted to send a quick shout out to all my readers around the world, who may be experiencing some difficult times at the moment. Please know that all of you are in my thoughts, and I hope you all remain safe, no matter what may be happening or where you are :) Stay safe my frienda, and See you at the next update! -JE2)
