AN: Whoo! It has been an unfortunately long hiatus (for which I apologize profusely for), sometimes life hits you a bunch or consecutive blows and it just drags you down. But now after some time I'd like to announce that I am officially back to writing! I plan to start posting stories on a more regular basis, starting by posting this JNRZ Drabble then completely reworking Chapter 2 of JNRZ Year 1!
So without further ado, I present my newest story, JNRZ: Chasing Shadows.
~O~O~O~O~O~
It is often said that the Twin Cities is the capital of opportunity, where anyone can be anyone if you have the drive to do so. Unfortunately, such a place has the knack to attract those unsavory sorts that'll happily break the rules to get ahead, a playground for your more unique variety of criminals and villainy.
Down in lower Mantel, one of the fancier streets in a shopping district was aglow in red and blue flashing lights as a dozen police cars surrounded the "Lumiere Noire" jewelry store, a silent alarm having requested their aide.
The police were locking down the block tight, setting up barricades to keep curious onlookers from wandering into the crossfire, a sniper's nest to provide overwatch, and they had even taken over the first floor of the hotel across the street. The lobby itself was turned into field headquarters staffed by Mantel's finest, manning a room's worth of technical equipment ranging from radios, computers, and even a few display screens connected to aerial cameras broadcasting from patrolling helicopters. The most crucial piece of equipment in this room was a single landline telephone which as of right now belonged to the hostage negotiator, Detective Gale Lestrade.
The detective took one last drag of a cigarette before putting it out in her empty coffee cup, sending a quick glance to one of the nearby technicians who gave her a nod to proceed. She dialed the number provided to her and waited as the connection was made, taking only two dial tones for her to hear a click followed by soft breathing on the other end. After a few moments of pause, it was eventually Lestrade that spoke first.
"This is Detective Lestrade, I've been told that you're ready to talk."
A single grunt answered her.
"Good, then let me explain how this is going to work. We'll go through this step by step, starting with you telling me your name and your terms. If you play along nicely and quickly before Huntsmen have to get involved, you'll be looking at a fair trial and a short sentence."
"Fair enough." The voice was deep and croaky, almost casual as if he was on a call with a work acquaintance. "For now, you can call me Mr. Midnight and I believe we both want the same thing."
Lestrade sent a nasty glare to a nearby technician who loudly snorted at the horribly cliched pseudonym. She admittedly would have rolled her own eyes if hostage crises weren't so serious.
"And what would that be, Mr. Midnight?"
"I want to be out of here as soon as possible."
"I feel we may have different ideas of how you will leave, but I can see what we can work with. Although if I'm going to lift even a single finger to help you, you need to give me proof of the well-being of everyone in that store with you."
A throaty rumble of a laugh oozed from the phone and caught Lestrade off guard. "That can be easily arranged, Detective. In fact, you may as well have all of them. I'm about done with them."
"What does that mean?" she quickly asked, only for the line to be cut off with an eerie click. "Midnight? Hello?!"
"Ma'am! There's movement at the entrance!"
The detective angrily slammed the phone back onto its receiver and joined the officer at the nearby windows overlooking the street. "Is it the suspect? Is he making a move?"
"I-I'm not even sure what I'm looking at." The young officer stared through a pair of binoculars aimed at the jewelry store. "Wait… what the hell is that!?"
Before Lestrade could get clarification, the front doors of the store burst open, and a huge pulsating mass of darkness poured from the opening. The street suddenly erupted in terrified screams of civilian onlookers, what sounded like gunfire started popping from inside the store, and the police radios became a buzz of overlapping panicked voices.
"HOLY SHIT!"
"Reporting gunshots! Do we move in!?"
"How are we supposed to get past t-that… THING!?"
"Is it Grimm?! By the Brothers, what kind of maniac brings Grimm to an armed robbery!?"
"I-It's spreading out, they're charging us!"
"Blue Team requesting an order to open fire!"
"DO NOT FIRE! Hold your goddamn fire!" Lestrade barked over the radio. She had a feeling deep in her gut as she looked over the writhing mass below. The way it moved, as it spread further out over the street, pieces of black forms split off into more clear shapes. Shaped exactly like… "They're the hostages! All officers stand down and secure the civilians! I repeat! Those are people!"
The crowd of panicking silhouettes ran to the safety of the police line, showing no signs of pain from their current 'enshrouded' conditions besides stress-induced nerves. Not too long after, the silhouettes suddenly faded revealing a bunch of scared yet perfectly healthy civilians.
The building was quickly flashed and cleared as soon as the hostages were secured. The leader of the SWAT unit jogged back out to meet the detective in the street.
"Perp is long gone, looks like he lit some firecrackers to scare the hostages into stampeding."
"Shit." Lestrade venomously cursed. "Bastard probably slipped by with the crowd during the panic."
"What do you make of the black stuff on them? Some kind of special Semblance?"
"I've seen weirder abilities before. And looks like Midnight knows damn well how to use his." The detective quickly pulled out her radio to call over dispatch. "I want an immediate cordon within a six-block radius around this crime scene. Stand by for a description of the suspect as we gather eyewitness details. Practice caution when dealing with the target who is possibly a Huntsman-level threat. And get me the nearest Huntsman. We will not let him get away."
~O~O~O~O~O~
Midnight could still hear the far-off police sirens from the windy rooftop, feeling a comfortable enough distance away from the scene of the crime to look over his ill-gotten goods. Kneeling down in his stolen black business suit, he laid down his shotgun and zipped open his duffel bag. He started giddily laughing as the entire contents started sparkling brighter than an entire galaxy of stars.
"You did it Midnight. You fucking DID IT!" he cheered to himself, fistfuls of diamond pouring through his fingers like water.
I knew coming to Atlas was the right choice! He thought pleased to himself, running his long fingers through his sweaty, curly dark locks that lightly steamed in the cold tundra air. Two metropolises worth of banks and luxury stores, and nearly infinite places to hide! And thanks to the military funding, all the cops are either underfunded or too corrupt to do their jobs, and all the soldiers are too busy dealing with terrorists and Grimm to worry about robberies. What more could you ask for when debuting as Atlas's next greatest criminal mastermind! By this time tomorrow, I'll be all over the front pages, and everyone will be saying-
"Woooaaahhhh dude!"
Midnight nearly jumped out of his skin as he instinctively grabbed his shotgun and aimed it toward his surprise guest, although on their part, Reese didn't seem the least bit bothered as she hovered above from her hoverboard. By his guess, she was genuinely too enamored with the criminal's haul of jewelry to care.
"That's a shit ton of loot! How much do you think you could get for all that?"
Just what I needed, some nosy punk kid, he thought annoyed. Better get rid of her before she draws too much attention.
"You know what? I'm actually not too sure! Maybe you can help me out by taking a few, running to the nearest pawn shop, and tell me what you get for it? You know, so I can get an estimate for the rest?" Midnight lifted a handful of rings and loose diamonds towards Reese who loudly gasped and snatched it from his hand, nearly taking his arm with it.
"FOR REAL!? Dude! You just rocketed up to my top five favorite criminals! Thanks!" Reese giggled mischievously, pocketing her obvious bribe. She continued to hover in the same spot until Midnight coughed loudly.
"Shouldn't you be, you know, going? Now?"
"Oh! Yeah. Soon, my guy. Just gotta make sure you don't move around too much enough for my girl."
"Huh? What do you- What the hell?!" Midnight didn't know exactly when it must have happened, but his Aura had started glowing a deep red. He could hear snickering from the girl above him as her ear comm started buzzing.
"Suspect has been marked, Commander."
"I can see him from down the block, May." Jaune circulated over their channel. "Good job guys! You two keep him in sight and continue tagging him while I coordinate with the police. Neon will follow along on the ground and cover any extra escape routes."
"On it, Boss!" Reese quipped. "Got this in the bag. The dude is super gullible. Good tipper though- WOAH!" Reese had narrowly ducked the hail of shotgun pellets as Midnight racked another shell.
"You're a damn Huntress!?" The crook growled as he drew a bead on Reese for a second shot, only for it to wildly miss as his Aura took the load of a sniper round aimed for his shoulder. Deciding that was a good enough sign as any to find a better place with far fewer sniping positions, Midnight grabbed his duffel bag and leapt to the next roof over.
For every new rooftop, the chase repeated a sort of pattern; Midnight would try to shake Reese by sending a few shells her way, she'd return fire with some energy bolts and rude language, and then narrowly dodge May's sniper rounds by a scarily small margin. Once in a while Midnight would try to hide or take a quick unexpected turn in hopes of letting them slip by him, but thanks to what he discovered to be May's Semblance, they'd see him through any cover he'd find and either flush him out or have it be immediately blasted away by their combined firepower.
After the second time they 're-marked' him, Midnight knew that his only chance to ditch them was when the red light went away. Looking ahead, he saw he was going to run out of roof soon, but what he also saw perched there gave him an idea. From there he only focused on running as fast as he could, hoping he got the timing right. The skater girl also noticed he abandoned taking potshots at her and picked up her speed to chase him down close behind. Right before the two made it to a big jump between buildings, Midnight noticed the red glow had faded and he could hear the faint sound of 'cooing'.
This was his chance.
As soon as his foot met the ledge, Midnight activated his Semblance and lept, and landed in the big flock of pigeons resting on the other side. Everything around Reese erupted into a large cloud of pitch-black feathers as the silhouetted birds took flight, ramming into some of them at full speed.
Flying blind, Reese's board dipped too far down and had run right into the side of the building, luckily only falling a couple meters onto a fire escape, unluckily rolling down the steep steps to the level below it.
Midnight took the chance to quickly climb down the side of the building and quickly traversed the network of alleyways. Eventually, he came upon an opening to the streets where he peeked his head out to scan the rooftops. When he decided the coast was clear he walked out and followed the civilian foot traffic as casually as he possibly could.
As he strolled, his nerves were still on edge, the sirens in the near distance doing nothing to calm him. He began feeling paranoid as if everyone around him was staring. That paranoid feeling turned out to be more accurate when he realized that everyone around him was indeed looking at him curiously. He gave himself a once over in a restaurant window to see that he was glowing red once again.
"OH COME ON!" He loudly yelled, securing the duffel bag full of jewelry around him for another chase. Right before he could break into a full-blown sprint, he heard something that sounded a lot like a speeding go-kart and slammed into him like one too, sending him sprawling into a nearby parked car.
Propping himself off the vehicle, now blaring its car alarm, he saw a roaring trail of rainbows stop just a handful of meters away from him.
"Oops. My bad~" Neon winked at him. "Totally didn't see ya there! I'm, like, chasing this guy right now. Has a cheap suit, greasy hair, dirty gym bag full of diamonds, glowing red. Does any of this ring a bell?"
"Do Huntresses just come out of the woodworks in this city?!" Midnight snarled, wrenching his shotgun out from his bag and had it almost immediately shot out of his hand by another goddamn sniper shot. He watched the broken firearm scatter across the floor and tried once again to run for it, only for Neon to practically teleport in front of his escape route, twirling her nunchuck as she chewed some bubblegum.
"You know there's a ton of more legal ways to afford plastic surgery, right?" she said, popping a bubble.
"I'm not- who the hell said this was for plastic surgery?!"
"Ooooooh... sorrrryyy~ I just assumed you knew."
"ALRIGHT!" Midnight growled as he rolled up his sleeves. "Let's see how long you can keep that smile, you little Huntress SKANK!"
The following thirty seconds could really only be described as an immense ass-whopping. The only reason it wasn't categorized as a downright slaughter was that Midnight had his Aura unlocked, but all that really did was encourage Neon not to pull her hits, even less so after that 'skank' comment. It really is something of a sight to see a full-grown man get seven types of hell beaten into him by a teenage girl half his size. Really showed the immense difference between being a scrappy fighter and a well-trained martial artist.
Neon hadn't even needed to activate her Nunchucks' Dust mode by the time she knocked Midnight on his ass for a third time, and from there he had started to crawl away from her towards his discarded bag.
"Thanks for the warm-up, Scraggly." Neon mocked, slowly rolling behind him as the sound of sirens grew ever closer. "But this is honestly, like, super sad to watch. We should really just wait here for the Po-Po and take you to jail. Kay?"
Midnight's only answer was to shove his hands into the duffel bag and throw a retirement fund's worth of loose diamonds and pearls at Neon's feet, catching right below her roller skate wheels. The girl nearly did a double backflip before ungracefully falling onto her back, knocking the wind from her lungs.
As the nearby crowd rushed to either help Neon up or grab what they could before the cops got there, Midnight struggled back up to his feet and limped away as fast as he could. Even though he could see the red and blue lights rushing down the street toward him, he kept pushing forward. If he could just make it across the street-
BANG! BOOM!
Before he could get even halfway there, one of the city's heating lamps exploded right next to him, courtesy of a certain Sniper's bullet. The explosion and heat sent him to the ground, and by the time the ringing in his ears subsided, it was replaced by sirens as three police cars screeched to a stop in front of him.
Cops poured out of the police vehicles, along with Detective Lestrade and her passenger, Jaune Arc, who had been relaying her directions the whole time. As they surrounded Midnight, he looked behind himself for any possible escape but was met with a particularly pissed-looking Neon looking for any excuse to pounce his ass. Even as the cops approached him with guns and handcuffs, Midnight clutched the bag closer to himself…
…he still had one last trick up his sleeve.
~O~O~O~O~O~
Jaune wasn't sure what tipped him off first. Maybe it was just that natural sense of worry he had for things screwing up. Maybe it was that tactician part of him that had been keeping track of the criminal's skills and tactics that had helped him deduced what could be their next move. Maybe it was the look in Midnight's eye that Jaune had recognized in himself, a look of someone who wasn't going to give up without a fight.
Whatever the reason, Jaune felt an intense urge to speak up as the cop nearest to Midnight reached out.
"WAIT!" was all Jaune could blurt before Midnight chucked the heavy duffel bag at the cop in front of him, following up with a tackle. Jaune, Lestrade, Neon, and every nearby cop rushed in at the same time as the Silhouette Semblance took effect.
The entire center of the street became a mosh pit of indiscernible black figures, wrestling whoever they bumped into first. Amongst the ruckus of the blind struggle, it was Jaune's voice that topped the noise.
"GOT HIM!"
As if on cue, the silhouettes dissipated to reveal Jaune and a captured Neon held close to him in an airtight bear hug.
"Mrow~"
"Not the time, Neon!"
"I'm not the one getting handsy here, Blondie~"
"Will you two idiots focus?!" Lestrade barked from beneath a dog pile of officers "The suspect is getting away! "
"He went further up the street!" Reese chimed in as she flew overhead, finally back from her game of hide-and-seek with her hoverboard after her earlier wipeout. "Dipped into that outlet mall right over there!"
"No prob'!" Neon quipped as she cracked her knuckles. "That lanky twerp is total pushover now that he's unarmed."
"Hey Miller, have you seen my gun? I think I dropped it after that dick tackled me."
Everyone within earshot of the officer took a long pause before Detective Lestrade started giving him a vitriolic reaming and Jaune started issuing commands.
"Reese and Neon, hurry and find him! May, catch up to me!"
"ON IT!"
The fastest members of the team streamlined towards the crowded shopping area, Neon bobbed and weaved between pedestrians and storefronts as Reese scanned the area from the air. By the time the rest of the team along with the detective caught up, it was Reese who spotted him first.
"Asshole is in the food court! He's trying to make a break for it."
"Cut off his escape! We'll surround and capture him there!"
As the trio made their way into the public cafeteria, they quickly scanned the crowds for the robber. Jaune knew if they coordinated and were quick, they could capture Midnight before he-
BANG! BANG!
"Asshole used his Semblance again! Must have cloaked like over fifty damn people!"
"I seriously can't tell any of them apart! Everyone is freaking out!"
"He's causing another diversion!" Lestrade snarled. "With a crowd that big he might get away for real this time."
Jaune was quickly getting overwhelmed by the drastically developing situation. Panic was spreading everywhere and soon they wouldn't be able to contain the crowd, possibly losing Midnight for good. Thinking fast, he bogged down his own trepidation and commanded his team.
"Neon and Reese! Use your speed and Semblances to corral any and every silhouette you can find. Don't let a single one out! Lestrade, May, and I will escort everyone else away from you guys as you do your thing!"
The two girls gave quick affirmations and sped into the panicking crowd. Reese summoned Ollie to help her intercept any stragglers while Neon left a blazing trail of light, skating in a large high-speed circle that slowly closed in on a large mob of dark silhouettes. The entire center of the food court was alight in a technicolor light show that seemed to enrapture the once panicking crowd.
The lights soon dimmed, and the large crowd of packed civilians was still shrouded in darkness as Team JNRZ surrounded it on all sides.
"JNRZ report." Jaune chimed over comms. "Did any silhouettes slip by?"
"Don't think so, J-Man."
"Totally locked down, Blondie."
"He's definitely in there Commander. Now we only have to drive him out."
"Easier said than done." Lestrade stated from next to Jaune.
"Why? All we have to do is wait for Mid-Shit's Semblance to time out, right?"
"If it does when we still don't have him in custody, then he could get desperate and pull a gun on a hostage. We have to figure out which one is him before someone gets hurt."
"Well, how the fuck do we do that then?!" Reese angrily shouted loud enough she didn't need comms. "There's hardly anything to tell them apart!"
"Maybe we can pick out his body type? Commander, we could start separating the female and male-shaped ones-"
"There's no time!" Neon interrupted. "The Semblance could break at, like, any second."
"What's the call, J-Man?"
"Girls! It's alright." Jaune reassured, "I already know which one is him."
"You do!?" all three of his teammates asked over comms. Even Lestrade seemed baffled.
"Are you sure, Kid?" the curious detective asked. "I need you to be absolutely sure about this."
"Well it's obvious isn't it?" he implored, sheathing Crocea Mors away. "He could have cloaked a hundred people and I would still be able to pick him out. And I know for a fact that Mr. Midnight is THAT MAN RIGHT THERE!"
Jaune had confidently pointed straight into the crowd, although at this distance he could have pointed at any single person. Any onlooker could tell that the silhouettes were looking confused, their head profiles swerving left in right trying to see what the Knight had seen.
"Yeah, you! The one with the suspicious stance!" Jaune persisted, strolling towards the crowd. "Stand there and don't move a muscle! I am placing you under arrest for burglary and probably a bunch of other crimes I just can't name right now."
"Commander, are you sure about this?"
"Yeah, dude, which one is he!?"
"That one!" Jaune pointed again somewhere in the middle of the crowd, gently pushing through the silhouettes. "Everyone else please make way! Freeze where you are Midnight! There's nowhere to run!"
The crowd started growing antsy as they tried to make way for the young Huntsman, several of which started parting to make room. As soon as Jaune was directly in the center of the mob a shiny blue object appeared in his hand and with a bellow, he dropped to one knee and slammed the Ice Crystal to the ground.
"I said FREEZE!"
Jaune's Aura flashed and the ground was instantly covered in a wide, thin layer of ice. Many of the silhouettes stumbled around them on the difficult terrain, and some struggled to stand on their feet. One particular silhouette took an incredibly nasty spill, face planting, and sent sliding across the surface from their momentum. As soon as the crumpled form slid to a stop, the effect of the Semblance died out, revealing none other than Mr. Midnight.
The burglar looked up in a daze and spotted his stolen firearm fallen just a few feet away from him. He made a move for it, but Neon moved way faster. The Disco Diva kicked the gun aside and slapped a handcuff onto his wrist.
"So sweet of you to drop by." Neon quipped with a cheshire grin.
~O~O~O~O~O~
"No, no, NO!" a handcuffed Midnight seethed. "This was supposed to be MY day! The big debut for Mr. Midnight! The Shade of Mantle, the Dark Terror of Atlas, damn it! I was going to be infamous! I swear on my life, Team JNRZ, you will pay! You haven't seen the last of-"
Detective Lestrade slammed the door shut on Mr. Midnight's police car, and watched it drive away with a satisfied grin. She reached into one of her suit pockets and lit herself a victory smoke before walking over to Team JNRZ as they finished giving testimonies to a couple of her officers.
"Well guys." The detective said with a raspy tone as smoke tendrils slipped from her lips. "As much as I despise working with a bunch of heavily armed, superhuman, teenagers: you guys did some good work today."
"Awww~ We love you too, Gale!" Neon mockingly gushed much to Lestrade's chagrin.
"Just glad to be of help, Ma'am." Jaune casually saluted.
"Although I am curious about something." May said thoughtfully, turning towards Jaune. "How did you deduce which one was Midnight?"
"Yeah dude! That was like some Big-Brain shit!" Reese praised as she reached up and ruffled his hair.
"Well, you see…" Jaune said embarrassedly, shyly rubbing the back of his head. "I really couldn't tell which one was Midnight, so I just thought that maybe if I made a big enough distraction he'd maybe try and make a run for it. All I really had to do was make sure he tripped when he made his move."
"OKAY. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Lestrade stated, deciding that she has had enough of today. "I am going to the nearest bar to buy enough drinks to forget how I apparently let a teenager bluff his way through the second most hostile hostage crisis of my career. And I want you all to go the fuck home before you stumble into another robbery. Got it?"
"Yes Ma'am!" JNRZ said in unison, suddenly deciding 2:00 P.M. was a good enough time for curfew. Even as the team rushed away, Gale could hear them excitedly talking about what big heroes they were today. Though she would never admit it, she couldn't help but admire them. When you've been a cop in Mantle as long as she has, you realize how rare it is for people to step up the same as they do.
As the old saying goes, the Twin Cities is the capital of opportunity, where anyone can be anyone if you have the drive to do so. Even though it may be a breeding ground for all kinds of criminals and assholes, every once in a while you may have a couple of good kids stumble through.