5.0 - Never Meet Your Heroes (They're Intimidating and May Accuse You of Theft)
Madison Clements
Even though she'd only left her contact details for Parian that morning, Madison couldn't help but want to sneak glances at her burner phone all day.
By the time she'd actually got to sleep she had been running on fumes, as she'd spent more time than she'd ever care to admit drafting and redrafting her letter to Parian. She couldn't help stressing over her word choice, if she was coming on too strong and a myriad of other things that had her re-writing it over and over before she was finally satisfied with the result.
Actually delivering it had been the easy part, she'd just teleported into the dark interior of the store, breathed a massive sigh of relief when no alarms had started shrieking and quickly stuck it to the door with a bit of tape before teleporting back to her bedroom, not wanting to risk anything by lingering for any longer than she needed to.
She'd ended up sleeping in late the next morning, which wasn't exactly atypical for her on a Sunday. Though usually the reason for that was her staying up late reading, browsing PHO or playing videogames, rather than beating up drug dealers and breaking into boutiques.
With almost half the day gone and having decided she'd want to go out again that night, the rest of day had managed to pass in a flash until she was waiting with agonising slowness for it to be late enough for her to actually be able to leave without any chance of discovery.
That she'd discovered she could teleport with another person was awesome and extremely useful to know, though the fact she later realised she still hadn't completed her competency quest had left her scratching her head as to what else she possibly had left to discover that her power thought should be common sense for her.
As her watch ticked past eleven thirty Madison decided it was late enough, equipping her not-quite-heroic costume and quickly checking herself over in the mirror before teleporting away to the centre of the Docks.
Her plan was a pretty simple one as far as they went, keep making her way around the Docks until she had built up enough of a mental map of the area that she could get anywhere she needed with at most a couple of jumps and obviously stop any criminals she saw along the way.
As the night progressed she'd found it was both more and less successful than her 'debut.' Cutting out her travel time to the Docks had effectively given her double the amount of time to patrol and being far more used to her rooftop hops, something that she found she was getting much better at with practice had also given her a much better appreciation for both her inherent mobility and spotting things out of place on the streets below.
It hadn't been too long comparatively before she'd found another drug dealer to trail, but had ended up stepping in when they'd started hassling someone she assumed was a customer. She'd left the man zip tied to a lamppost and had stayed around long enough to see the squad car approaching before she'd disappeared to what was quickly becoming her favourite rooftop. Gravel might have been noisy, but she did like the visceral crunch it made when she walked across it.
After that she'd ended up accidentally scaring off some graffiti artists from tagging a hardware store when she'd simply appeared in front of them. She was actually only going to ask them to stop, but she wasn't about to complain when one of them yelled 'cape!' and they'd scattered in all directions. She'd stopped a mugging a little later, though the victim had disappeared by the time she'd subdued the man through virtuous application of the flat end of the crowbar to soft tender places. Teleporting him to a nearby lamppost afterwards so she could tie him up properly and waited until the cops had him in hand before moving on.
Pausing on another rooftop and taking a sip of water from the bottle she'd brought with her some time later, Madison frowned as she thought she'd seen something off further down the street and it only took her a moment to screw the cap on and store the bottle away again before she was teleporting a few rooftops closer to investigate.
"Oh, well that's probably not good." She considered from her vantage point, a quickly deepening frown on her face as she watched the scene play out below, where a middle aged woman was walking down the street by herself but didn't seem to have noticed the four men that were slowly but surely gaining on her. Technically they weren't doing anything wrong and she might have even been reading too much into it, but she was pretty sure she wasn't. Still, they weren't actually doing anything and she didn't want to be one of those Vigilantes who attacked on the presumption of a crime. Not that leaving things to play out sat any better with her, what kind of Hero would she be if she waited for crime to happen before stepping in when innocent people could get hurt?
She smiled as an idea came to her and teleported down next to the woman.
"Holy fuck!" The woman startled, jumping as Madison appeared next to her. "Um I ain't got no money and my phone's a piece of shit just so you know."
Madison smiled, glad she didn't have a mouth covering like some Heroes opted for. "I'm a Hero don't worry" she started, her smile growing a little wider as she saw the woman visibly relax at that. "I just saw those guys might be following you and wanted to make sure you were okay." She threw her head back to gesture behind them and the woman looked back, a mix of worry and a scowl crossing her face as she caught sight of the group in question.
"Fucking them again" she muttered before turning back to Madison with a nod. "I appreciate it, I do. Think they're some big shit," she continued with a huff. "Been hassling people for the last week like we owe them dues just for walking."
"Is that... Normal?" Madison couldn't help but ask, she knew crime got pretty bad in the Docks, but it was still pretty wild to her that groups were going around demanding a toll just for getting home.
The woman just grunted in obvious annoyance. "Think they're the shit after that Merchants gang took out the Grease Snakes, fuckers ain't smart enough to realise they're next on the block now after taking over their old place."
"Grease Snakes?"
The woman gave her a look. "You really are new ain't you? How long you been doing this, a month?"
Madison decided that telling her 'since yesterday' would probably destroy what little credibility she'd managed to accrue so far. Thankfully she was spared from answering as the woman took her silence for admission.
"Figures." The woman continued, "still you're here so you're already better than most of them assholes." She shook her head and Madison opted not to comment, she'd been around Emma and her group long enough to recognise the signs of an impending rant if she was stupid enough to set it off.
The woman looked back and Madison followed her gaze, the men who had been following at a distance definitely looked like they weren't sure what to do next, though it was obvious they hadn't been able to come to a decision either as they awkwardly kept up the pace even as they didn't come any closer.
"They're pussies, ain't gonna start shit now you're here" the woman scoffed as she turned back to her. "Say, you just walking ladies home, getting cats outta trees and shit like that or you interested in busting heads?"
Madison shrugged. "All of the above I guess."
The woman barked a laugh. "Real hero type then huh? Well those assholes ain't worth shit, but if you wanna make em' hurt some I know a place you can hit for the good stuff." The smirk she was wearing growing even more pronounced when Madison couldn't help but perk up at the comment.
"Yeah, ever since the Grease Snakes got taken out those idiots took over, always throwing a party at fourth and main, trying to get anything with tits and an ass to head over. I ain't gonna ask if you can take care of yourself." She continued, giving Madison a very obvious once over. "And they might be high and even more stupid, but they've got enough guns that someone will probably get a hit in if you ain't smart about it."
"Thanks" Madison replied with a nod of her own. She had no idea where the place the woman was talking about actually was, but that was what her phone GPS was for if it came to it. "If I go and scare those guys off are you going to be alright or do you want me to stick with you?"
The woman just waved her off. "I walk this way every night, I'll be fine girl. Go and make them piss themselves and get going."
Not quite sure how to take the obvious dismissal Madison smiled and gave the woman another nod, glancing back at the group still following and teleporting directly behind the four men.
With a flourish despite her lack of audience she smacked the broken lamppost she'd appeared next to, the harsh crack of metal against metal making the four of them jump and spin around in a tumble of limbs and surprised shouts.
"Gentlemen, I hope we're not going to have a problem?" She smiled, hoping they couldn't see her arm shaking slightly at how the vibrations had travelled right back up it and had thoroughly convinced her to never try that trick again no matter how cool it looked.
"Ain't no problem ms cape."
"Yeah we're just walking, no need to hurt nobody now."
"Hmm." Madison intoned theatrically, bringing the crowbar in front her so she could lean onto it like an impromptu cane. "Well then I'm going to disappear and I hope that you're going to continue walking back the way you came."
She teleported behind them before they could respond and at a distance midway between the four of them and the woman who had continued walking, even if Madison could see her head turned back to look. Smoothly Madison twisted around as she appeared, silently repositioning herself, crowbar held low and facing outward like a sword ready to come up into a guard position.
Madison watched in amusement as they cursed and muttered to themselves before one of them had the thought to look back and she gave a little jaunty wave with her free hand.
They left pretty quickly after that.
.
.
After hanging around for five minutes, making sure the woman didn't encounter any more trouble and the smarter than average gang members didn't decide to press their luck, Madison had retreated to an out of the way rooftop to find the address in question and plot a route towards it.
If she had been walking it might have taken her a good twenty minutes, but with her power the only real delay was when she'd paused to check her phone and make sure she was going in the right direction every so often. It turned out that having the power to move instantaneously from one place to the next hadn't seemed to have improved her overall sense of direction and she'd had to course correct slightly a couple of times before she'd made it.
Though even if she hadn't been given a direct address, Madison was pretty sure she would have been able to figure out something was going on if she'd stumbled across the area.
The place in question was a bar, or at least it had been one. Whether or not it still was one was hard to tell from the outside, a large squat brick building which looked like it had a couple of apartments layered flatly on top.
There were lights coming from every window even with the blinds down or where they'd simply been boarded over. Even from a rooftop on the opposite side of the street she could hear the steady beat of music and there was a constant stream of foot traffic as people came and left in ones and twos and the occasional group. Unlike a lot of the places she'd been there were several cars parked in front of the building and as she watched another one pulled up and three people got out, exchanging words with the driver she was too far away to hear before the car moved on and disappeared around the corner of the block.
It was certainly a lot bigger than the three person house she'd raided the previous night and she wondered if she was biting off more than she could chew... And if she actually had enough zip ties for everyone.
She watched as the new group exchanged words with what were either bouncers or guards and entered through the front of the bar, the sound of music becoming far louder for a few moments before the door swung shut again. From her position she couldn't see inside the building even when the door had opened and she spent a few minutes trying to find a vantage that might show an open window without anything obstructing it, but whatever was going on inside they apparently didn't want anyone looking in. Switching tacks she wondered if she could make it to the roof, but the building was taller than anything else on the street and nothing gave her a good enough angle to try.
All that meant was unless she went in through the front door itself, she was pretty sure she wasn't getting in. She ended up spending some more time watching the place and wondering if some kind of opportunity would present itself, seeing more people enter and leave all the while, but unless she took off a lot more clothing than she was comfortable with it was obvious she would get made the moment she went through the doors. Even sooner if she had to try and deal with the guards first.
Briefly she tried to consider how other Heroes would tackle things. Miss Militia would just shoot everyone, Armsmaster had literal power armor and a tinker-tech halberd to go with it and Battery would probably just charge up, bust in and take names. As far as Madison knew she was a very squishy human wearing very normal clothes and even if that wasn't true, testing it against a building full of armed thugs probably wasn't the way to go.
With a sigh Madison decided to call it for the night, they couldn't be partying every night no matter what the woman had said. She'd check back tomorrow or another night and figure out a good way to get into the place and ideally survive the experience unharmed.
Giving the place one last look her attention was caught as she thought she heard the sound of an engine growing louder, but even as she looked down the street she couldn't see anything. But rather than fading off it only grew louder and more obvious and Madison found herself standing up to look around properly, wondering how on earth she couldn't spot something so loud and-
-There was an enormous crunch and the shriek of grinding metal as suddenly the row of cars in from of the bar seemed to implode one after the other. She ducked down on pure instinct, even as she watched in bewilderment as all four cars crumpled like they were being run over by an invisible runaway rolling pin.
Then it was over and Madison only had a moment to wonder 'what the hell,' before a door appeared from thin air and a stream of men and women jumped out brandishing bats, knives and guns.
Then it hit her, the cars hadn't just randomly crumpled, they'd been run over and there was only one cape she could think of that could make the equivalent of a giant monster truck and have absolutely no qualms about running over a bunch of cars whether they were occupied or not.
The Merchants had arrived.
The hollering men and women below stormed into the bar and Madison froze in indecision. She had come out to fight crime and whilst the possibly of fighting other capes had crossed her mind, she hadn't expected to have to face it on her second night out!
With a scowl she steeled herself. She didn't have to like it, she wanted to be a Hero and that meant diving headfirst into situations so other people could run away. Not everyone in the bar was probably a ganger, it was a bar! There were probably a tonne of people just out to have a good time and even if that wasn't true, she couldn't just leave them all to kill each other. If only to avoid the collateral damage to all the other buildings that might have been occupied by innocent people around them.
Nodding to herself she teleported down in front of the entrance just as the doors burst open again and she got a brief glimpse of the chaotic melee going on inside as a dozen panicked people rushed out with a couple of Merchants pursuing. Her crowbar was already in her hand, but the crush of people made it impossible to swing, though that didn't stop her tripping the first Merchant as they ran past her, wooden bat sailing out of his hand as he hit the ground hard.
The other one saw her then, throwing a curse she didn't register as he came at her with a bat of his own and she teleported behind him, jabbing him in the back. But she quickly realised his coat was thicker than it looked as he whirled on her, red eyes and a manic grin as he took a wild swing of his own that she ducked under before jabbing upwards and catching him on the chin. His mouth snapped shut with a crack and he let out a muffled curse as he took an unsteady step back, but Madison swung low, the claw of the crowbar catching his ankle and sending him falling.
But before she could round on him he yelled out in the direction of the invisible vehicle he'd come from. "She's a fucking cape, shoot the bitch!" And Madison didn't wait to find out who he was talking to as a dull whine began to rise and she teleported straight back to the roof she'd just been looking down from.
Stepping back to the edge of the rooftop she took in the scene below, the people who had escaped quickly disappearing down the block in every direction as she heard the crick of what sounded like a large mechanical gear turning from the space the invisible vehicle occupied.
She only had time to see the flash of a muzzle report as the rooftop exploded and she was sent flying back, dimly aware the cannon was still firing as the building continued to shudder with every hammer blow. Madison blinked up at the night's sky as the ringing in her ears finally stopped, looking down over herself in confusion as her awareness came back to her, vaguely registering the tears in her hoodie and trying to find where she was bleeding.
The building shock and she suddenly realised she had much bigger priorities. With a thought she teleported to the next building adjacent, rolling onto her front as the cannon cut off a moment later. She paused, wondering if that was the last of it before she heard a crick, crick, crick and her eyes went wide again.
She barely teleported to the rooftop of another building nearby before the roof she previously occupied took another absurdly high calibre shell and when the cannon cut off a second later and the telltale sound of the mount turning replaced it, Madison realised with pooling dread that whoever was manning the vehicle had a way of tracking her.
She could have just left. She doubted Squealer or whoever it was could nail her halfway across the city, but Squealer was a tinker and underestimating tinkers tended to have results like getting yourself blown up on a rooftop because you thought you were safe.
Madison jumped to her feet with a speed that would have surprised her in any other circumstance, quickly getting a bearing of where she was relative to everything else and teleported to the rooftop directly opposite to buy herself some time. Chancing a glance back down to the street as the mount continued to turn, she almost froze in surprise when she saw a giant mechanical monstrosity replacing the empty space the crushed line of cars had occupied previously.
It was like a monster truck had been mashed together with an APC and then dropped on its head. Whatever cloaking field Squealer had managed to rig up clearly hadn't survived the cannon actually firing and Madison saw the weapon slowly turning on its mount to line up a shot on her again.
"Well this is either a great idea or a terrible one, no in between really" she muttered to herself and teleported, landing right behind the cannon as it paused and then continued it's slow rotation. Thankfully it wasn't a regular cannon, otherwise she would have had no idea what to do with her bare hands. No, it was tinker-tech and more importantly tinker-tech cobbled together by a perpetually high tinker, which meant the whole thing looked like it shouldn't work and hopefully wouldn't take much to make sure it didn't (and hopefully didn't explode in her face from her efforts).
Madison had no idea what all the wires she saw were for, but didn't waste any time in grabbing and yanking them out, the rotation of the mount stuttering as she found a side panel that wasn't fastened down properly and stabbed her crowbar into the opening over and over again.
The dull whine she'd already grown used to suddenly cut out all at once and she almost fell off as the cannon juddered to a stop, barrel pointing to the sky between two buildings as something clicked repeatedly from the beleaguered internals she could make out.
Before she even had time to celebrate her success there was a slam and she spun around to see a roof hatch flung open and who she could only assume was Squealer pull herself up.
"You bitch!"
And then the shotgun appeared to emphasise the words and Madison teleported back behind the broken cannon as the gun went off, a dozen impacts sparking off the gun mount in a sudden racket of ricochets.
"You ain't so tough you prissy little bitch! Come and get some!"
The shotgun fired again as Madison teleported, feeling a slight pull on her power that she somehow knew meant she couldn't keep up her current pace forever.
She appeared on a rooftop overlooking the scene, finding Squealer as the woman looked around and then teleported directly behind her. Even as her crowbar came down the woman was quick, swinging herself around with a speed that caught Madison by surprise as she blocked the overhead strike with her shotgun and a vicious grin before shoving forwards and sending Madison stumbling back off balance.
She teleported before she could lose her footing entirely, appearing on the ground next to the vehicle, but even as she moved to teleport back onto the roof of the truck-thing Squealer was ahead of her and she could only watch in annoyance as the roof hatch slammed shut again.
"Ride or die you fucks! Big mama's going home, so you better bring back the goods or don't bother coming back at all!"
Madison couldn't actually see the speakers Squealer's voice was coming from, but any concern she had that she was about to get swarmed by Merchants looking for the last ride out quickly vanished as Squealer floored it in a roar of crumpled and grinding metal and Madison had to teleport onto a nearby rooftop to avoid being sprayed by shards of debris as the giant wheels ground further into the vehicles they'd already crushed beneath them.
She could only watch helplessly as Squealer drove away, for a moment not sure if she should pursue or continue with her original objective with Squealer's sudden absence and her giant cannon out of the picture.
It wasn't hard to choose as much as she found it frustrated her, she had no idea if she could teleport onto a moving vehicle and wasn't keen to try on one of the mad tinker's vehicles to start with, especially knowing she had no way to open the damn hatch the woman had slammed shut in her face and probably locked behind her too.
In the blink of an eye Squealer's bad joke of a chariot had disappeared around a corner and the sheer noise of its passing quickly faded after it. Madison's gaze turned back to the bar where she could still hear the sounds of fighting over the incessant music that hadn't cut off the entire time.
She was sore, probably bleeding from a dozen places given the tears in her hoodie and she had no real idea of what she was actually going to be facing when she got in there.
"Welp, this is what I signed up for" she murmured to herself and teleported inside.
