Let's Get Dangerous! Chapter 2 (Original chapter Chapter 46)

The room was paralyzed for a moment before Lonnie, like the true dumbass he was, charged towards the obvious Cape (who even had an actual cape!) with a fist drawn back.

"Lonnie, you idiot!" Steve groaned, before running to help his idiot of a friend, with Paulie right behind him.

"The real easy way it is." Darkwing shrugged nonchalantly before leaping into the air and drawing a weapon from her waist. It looked like a gun of some kind, but had a wide nozzle-like muzzle. Still, Steve knew better than to stand in the path of a gun, so he threw himself behind a stack of boxes just as the Cape pulled the trigger, pulling Paulie with him.

[Phut]!

Instead of a bullet, the gun spat out what looked like a canister about the size of a can of soda. Which was plainly impossible due to the fact that there was no way for the thing to be stored inside of the gun, not to mention the fact that the barrel was thinner than the can itself, so it shouldn't be possible for it to have been fired.

'A fuckin' Tinker!' he realised with a chill down his spine. Only Tinkers could make things that told common sense and physics to take a hike like that.

The canister flew straight ahead and struck Lonnie in the face, breaking his nose. As the man-child howled in pain and staggered back, clutching his face, the canister fell to the ground and started spewing out purple smoke that enveloped him in seconds before dispersing. A few seconds later, Lonnie crashed to the ground face-first, snoring loudly.

"Sleep gas? Fuck we have got to get outta here!" Steve hissed. He had no intentions of being the first notch on the belt of a newbie Cape. He had never heard of any of the gangs with a Cape like this, nor had he heard of any heroes like this crazy chick. No, the best idea was to grab Lonnie and get out of this place.

"You should have thought of that before you decided to commit a crime, criminal." Darkwing said coolly from above him. Steve looked up dumbly and saw the caped figure perched atop the box he was hiding, looking down at him emotionlessly.

"Shit!" he shouted in shock, leaping back and somehow tripping over his own feet, landing on his ass like a moron. Paulie grabbed a nearby crowbar that he had spotted and swung it wildly at the Cape, who jumped over the swing with an almost elegant leap.

Pointing her gun at Paulie, Darkwing pulled the trigger again, this time a set of bolas emerged and wrapped around the man's arms as they swung back the crowbar for another shot.

"Ack!"

Trying to shake off the weighted cord that was wrapped around his arms, Paulie was too distracted to notice Darkwing pulling out and placing something on one hand before approaching him.

"Your fly's open." Darkwing mentioned seriously.

"Huh?" Paulie looked down instinctively and the caped crime fighter drove a solid punch into his solar plexus, the device she had equipped unleashing a small electric shock, dropping him like a stone.

"And then there was one." Darkwing turned to face Steve, who cursed and pulled out his butterfly knife. It had been a gift from Paulie for his birthday a couple of years ago. He never thought he'd have to use it here.

"Stand back, freak!" Steve shouted. "I'm armed!"

"Let's change that, shall we?" Darkwing drawled and fired her gun from the hip. A large glob of blue ooze emerges and flies towards Steve's hand, striking it dead on. Much to his surprise, the would-be gang-leader was flung back with a yell of shock, dragged along behind his arm like it was being pulled by a car. He slammed into the wall with a thud and was stunned.

Shaking his head, Steve looked up to see that the blue goo around his hand, knife and all, was stuck to the wall and was rapidly hardening. He tried to pull his arm out of the goop or even rip the goop off the wall, but was completely unable to even move it.

"Yep, yep, yep. That goo is about as solid as a rock right now." Darkwing twirled her gun before stowing it in its holder at the small of her back, along with removing the knuckleduster-like thing she had used on Paulie and placing it in a slot in her belt. "So then, you and your friends here are going to have a nice little trip to jail, courtesy of me, Darkwing. Please make sure to get my name right when you tell the police and PRT about me, or I will be very upset. I refuse to be the next Chubster, so you and your stooges-"

"Friends!" Steve protested.

"-stooges had better get my name right. Do we understand one another?" the Cape finished somewhat threateningly.

"Y-yeah…I got ya." The boy gulped.

"Excellent. Now, I had better get you to the police station." Darkwing nodded briskly, adjusting her hat, which, Steve realised suddenly, hadn't left her head whatsoever during the fight. Fuckin' Capes.

Not fifteen minute later, Steve found himself suspended by his wrists from a cable next to Lonnie and Paulie outside the police station, Darkwing having left on that crazy-looking motorbike not ten seconds ago. As the police officers came out to see what the fuss was, Steve thought one thing rather bitterly.

'I should have just gone to fuckin' college like Mom wanted me to.'

Later

Darkwing's Secret Base

Taylor was stoked. She had taken those three morons down like a boss. Not that it was much of an achievement. Two of them had been jocks with all the brainpower of dead moss, while the last one had clearly been out of his depth with the whole 'being a criminal' thing, as well has having to drag the all-but-dead weight of the other two with him.

Pursing her lips, the partially unmasked Cape examined the Shock Duster that she had used on one of the jocks with a critical eye. It had burnt out after only a single use, which was not supposed to happen. If she had to guess, it was the substandard components that she had been forced to use that had caused the brownout. Stupid old rusting cars…

Perhaps scrounging around in old abandoned houses had not been as useful as she had initially thought. Granted, the wiring she had used in the Shock Duster had been the last of the wire she had available and that was because it had been degraded and rusty in places, which was why she had used it for a prototype weapon, as it was only necessary to try out once or so.

Still, she hadn't expected it to literally only work once!

"What a pain!" she complained. Then she sat down on the seat of the Ratcatcher to consider what to do. She had taken the money in the wallets of the three idiots, so that was about a hundred dollars all told. Going into a hardware store as Taylor Hebert was out of the question; that may as well scream 'I'm a Tinker!' to all of the gangs and the PRT. Going in costume…wasn't such a bad idea, actually.

Let's face it, no one would expect a Cape to just turn up and buy things in costume. Mostly because it sounds so utterly ridiculous. Just about the only exceptions might be New Wave, and that's because their identities were public knowledge. Technically, there was no reason that I couldn't do it too.

Aside from the fact that I was likely to be misconstrued as a thief or robber. That would suck majorly. Still, there was nothing I could do except try, right? I'd give it a shot during the weekend. I'd have to plan things out so I wouldn't have anyone shadowing me back to my base afterwards…hmmm.

A Few Days Later

Director Piggot's Office

"So someone dressed as a Cape, the same one who captured three idiots who tried to rob a warehouse, this 'Darkwing' character…walked into a regular hardware store, as well as a computer hardware store, and purchased goods for cash?" Emily Piggot asked, disbelief and skepticism in her voice.

"That would evidently be the case." Armsmaster nodded. The Tinker was standing stiffly in front of her desk.

Piggot sighed and massaged her temples. "Right…so what did 'Darkwing' purchase?"

"Pire, circuit boards and miscellaneous other items from the computer hardware store and a variety of tools from the regular hardware store." Armsmaster answered. "I've sent you an e-mail with the full list attached. "

"I'll look it over later." The Director said. "So what happened afterwards?"

"Darkwing vanished in a large cloud of smoke as he or she walked along the street. I am currently working under the assumption that Darkwing is a Mover, specifically Typhoportation, teleporting with smoke as a medium." The man stated. "If Darkwing is indeed also a Tinker of some flavor, then it is likely he or she is a combat-focused Tinker, which the inventions the three boys described seem to bear out."

Piggot grunted. "I wouldn't trust what they say. They'd say anything to cut time off their sentences."

"True, but I cross-referenced their statements with the security camera footage of Darkwing from both of the stores. There's a 90% chance that Darkwing is female, by the way." He responded crisply. "She was careful and avoided exposing her gun, but the few images that were revealed of her belt put it as a custom piece, with a seamless buckle. I have asked Dragon and there has not been any metal belt even remotely similar made by any manufacturer in America."

"So a Tinker with Mover abilities…interesting." Piggot nodded. "And the report about the motorcycle Darkwing used to ferry the boys to the police station?"

"Another custom job, but I would wager that its base is that of a regular motorcycle." Armsmaster said with a frown beneath his helmet. "It would certainly be easier than building one from scratch for a rookie Tinker."

The image of the bike in question was on the Director's monitor right then and there. It was lean and mean, a dull rust-red color and the headlights near the handlebars were shaped to look like glaring eyes.

"Whoever Darkwing is, she has a reasonable understanding of how to intimidate people, judging by how she appeared to her first captures and the appearance of her transport." Piggot observed, one finger tapping the desk surface thoughtfully. "She also isn't a loose cannon like Shadow Stalker was, as none of her weapons were anything close to being lethal. I want all Protectorate members and the Wards to extend her an invitation."

"Very well." Armsmaster said, something in his voice making Piggot raise an eyebrow at him.

"You don't believe Darkwing will accept." She stated, rather than asked.

"No, she will not." The Tinker Hero said with a shake of his head. "Had she wanted to join, she would have come after making one item, or perhaps two, as proof of her abilities. As she has assembled a rather good quality costume and devices for herself, it seems likely that she plans on being an independent hero."

The Director scowled. While they frequently lasted less than six months after their first outing, Independents and Rogues could survive by themselves, even in Brockton Bay. Parian, the cloth-controller, was the most famous example. She wanted nothing to do with the war between the gangs and the PRT, merely to operate her clothing store in peace.

Emily Piggot's dislike of Capes left her unable to quite believe what the girl was saying, but was forced by her strict professionalism and the rules set down by the Protectorate to not pressure her unless she clearly committed a crime with her powers, which the female Cape had never done. She didn't even have a jaywalking charge to her.

"Brockton Bay is teetering on a knife's edge and we do not need a well-intentioned Independent Parahuman acting as the spark to set off the powder keg that this city has become." She ground out firmly. She was well aware that this was simply delaying the inevitable. The Neo-Nazi gang, Empire 88, the pan-Asian gang Azn Bad Boyz and the drug addict/trafficking gang the Archer's Bridge Merchants were in a state of equilibrium with one another, the Merchants, being by far the weakest of the three, acted as a useful buffer between the two larger gangs.

It was a lot more precarious than it looked, however. Kaiser's Empire 88 had more Capes than most of the city had combined, while the ABB had Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu, who had fought the Endbringer Leviathan to a standstill. Just about the only saving grace was that Kaiser preferred to pretend to be an 'enlightened and civil' person, so rarely started a fight without overwhelming justification, while Lung was very much the epitome of a sleeping dragon, rarely stirring himself unless he felt he had been insulted personally.

Should that happen, or should the Empire be suddenly weakened drastically, or should the Merchants somehow cease to exist…well, the picture wasn't pretty.

"I'll ensure that Battery is there to keep Assault in line if they meet her." Armsmaster sighed.

"Please do. And Clockblocker as well." The Director felt a headache at the mention of her two least-favourite (that were in Brockton Bay) capes. Assault was a master at being irritating and irrelevant, and Clockblocker was rapidly making himself into a mini-Assault.

The only thing worse than having those two here would be if Mouse Protector decided to up sticks from Boston and move to the Bay!

A Week Later

With Darkwing, Streets of Brockton Bay

Cruising almost silently down the street on the Ratcatcher, the caped crime fighter known as Darkwing kept aware of any possible criminal activity in her vicinity with beady and alert eyes…

…or so she'd like to say, but she was really just bored out of her mind. Darkwing hadn't stumbled across a single crime in the past two hours, and the only thing she'd found before that had been a pair of drunk idiots urinating on someone's car.

'Note to self: invent brain bleach.' Darkwing thought to herself with a shudder. There were some things that did not need to be seen, especially by girls who hadn't even made it to first base with a boy or girl.

She had ignored them because really, the embarrassment at being caught on camera would probably be punishment enough when the authorities tracked them down and charging them with being Drunk and Disorderly, along with Indecent Exposure and Loitering with Intent.

Abruptly, Darkwing swerved to one side as a large mass of trash flew out of an alley and almost hit her. The shouting and swearing coming from it led her to conclude that it was in fact the third member of the Merchants, Mush. He was a Changer, a class of Parahuman able to change their bodies in some way. His ability was to draw trash together and use it to make a false body for himself. The more trash he had, the bigger his body could become and the larger the pieces of trash he could absorb became.

She personally would have classed him as a Shaker, as he wasn't actually changing his body, just attracting garbage to create a false body around it, but whatever.

What was odd was that he had a garbage bin lodged in his midsection. Who could have…?

"Fuckin' Merchant trash!" a sneering female shouted from the alley as a black and red hooded figure emerged from it, floating on a manhole cover. Several chunks of concrete floated around her and her body language practically broadcast anger.

"Bitch!" Mush shouted, presumably at the floating woman, who Darkwing now recognised as Rune of the Empire 88.

"Cocksucking bastard. This is the Empire's fucking turf, not yours. Peddle your shit elsewhere!" Rune snapped at Mush before noticing me. "And who the fuck're you?!"

"Darkwing, new Indie hero." The purple-clad heroine replied. "So what's the usual etiquette when a hero stumbles across two villains beating the shit out of each other?"

Rune tilted her head to one side curiously. "You aren't gonna try to arrest us?"

"I'm technically just a vigilante, so I can only intervene if I interrupt a crime in progress." Darkwing shrugged. "Last thing I need is to give the Protectorate a reason to draft me. All you two are doing is fighting each other, so unless you threaten bystanders, I'll not be interfering."

"Fuckin' weird for a hero." Rune sneered verbally. "Get gone then before garbage for brains there decides to fuck you up."

Huh. Honorable Nazi Capes. What a contradiction in terms.

'She likely doesn't want to have to possibly deal with two enemies at once rather than one.' Darkwing deduced easily. Aloud, she said, "OK. Have fun taking out the trash."

With that she zoomed off…for about a block, then used her smoke teleportation to speed to the rooftops and double back to watch the fight. Most of what she knew about Rune and Mush's powers were what Cape Hounds had posted on Pho, which meant it was at least suspect, if not a fabrication. Information gathered first hand was always preferable, and in the world of Capes, information was power, especially when it was regarding the powers and limitations of other Capes.

Luckily, the two more experienced Capes were busy fighting and didn't notice the puff of purple smoke that heralded her arrival on a nearby rooftop. Darkwing removed her hat and lay down on the surface of the roof to peer over the edge and observe the Cape fight.

Rune was throwing the heavy pieces of concrete at Mush, who tried (and failed) to smash them to one side. Then the Nazi cape was pulling them back into orbit around her, although it seemed that the more pieces she was actively controlling, the more effort she had to put into actively controlling them.

'The more things she has under her control, the less control she actually has over them.' Darkwing concluded. 'It would explain why she's just flinging them at Mush like she was manually throwing stones rather than adjusting their course in mid-flight.'

On Mush's side, every displaced piece of brick and overturned garbage can was rapidly sucked into his false golem body. This contradicted what that idiot xxxxVoid_Cowboyxxxx posted about Mush not being able to add to his body after it was made. It also meant that the trash controller was more dangerous the longer a fight went on. It upgraded him to being a priority target in Darkwing's mind, one to be removed from play quickly before he could take advantage of his advantage.

Soon enough though, Mush had enough and ran. Rune cursed him out for a minute before floating back the way she had come, presumably to report to a superior about her victory. Darkwing remained on the rooftop for a moment before standing, replacing her hat and teleporting in stages back to her bike.

She had files to write.

Ok, so this is another stab at Darkwing!Taylor. Not sure if it's coming off as well as the first chapter, but I'm trying to make it a mix of Darkwing's intelligence and toon-like luck combined with a bit of Worm's gritty realism. Let me know how I did.