Aelham City

@Shade He laughed quietly under his mask. A superhero ruining his plan. Amazing. His relative control toward fate, and the lack of mastery in manipulating the interconnected, and tangled web of lives are boring holes on his plans. Now it is appearing as if he needs to play more than one game of chess: one board per person, played at the same time.

Mr. Carpenter started reading the profile of this mysterious meddling anti-villain. Starting with the suit: the material seems to reflect the light away from the flesh underneath it—gotcha. Light as weakness. Being of Darkness. Playing Hero. The irony. The masked villain, started going deeper: history of the suit, owner of the suit, places the suit has been, the possible identical suits that exist today and what separates it from them.

Granted. Except for the identity of the owner: Mr. Carpenter enjoys surprises.

He made a mental note to deal with the politician someday, letting the trauma of this incident do the work for him. And so, Mr. Carpenter started flipping through his newspaper: “19 year old teen denies accusations of kidnapping a 5 year old girl who is still missing.” There was a picture of the teen and the missing girl.

“This one.” He nodded. It will be a race against time for his new superhero company. Mr. Carpenter willed the rubble on his feet to turn into a pair of scissors and a pen by subjective reality warp. Then he started cutting the article, writing something behind it. “Don’t you read the newspaper?” encircling the title, before folding it to a paper plane and letting it fly. He willed for the plane to reach this young superhero. Landing somewhere near the young man.

Mr. Carpenter once again, tucked his newspaper underneath and vanished, off to hunt this 19 year old and make him pay. He’ll use the history of the ground and the shadow of the 19 year old’s footprints to track him. Hopefully, he’ll get to see this mysterious superhero once again; maybe have a chat with him too.

@Mr. Carpenter Boring. Waste of his time. Annoying. Shade never understood why Mech sent him out on these useless patrols. They needed more team members. They weren't a neighborhood watch, they were a team of /superheroes/. But Mech was the boss, and he respected the boss. So he went along, walking the perimeter of the cities darkest sectors. The night was still with the moon shining brightly over the city. It was eery to say the least. It was almost to bright from the moon to seem like it was close to midnight.

To put it blatantly, he had been '-hurt' ever since the Iron Wolf incident. He had been right, the guy was a jerk and wasn't going to fit in. The hardest part was the what ifs. Two guys like Mech and Iron Wolf, two heroes that radiated goodness and hope. Not like Shade, the one who struggled with darkness.

Oh and yes, he did notice the creepy guy in the mask perched a top a lower roof top than the ones he was scaling. But hey, to each their own. As he passed the man, he eyed him. He was just reading the newspaper, he probably had some kind of medical condition. He kept on.

That's when he heard it, tire screeches and screams. He shadow jumped, landing him on the roof over the main road of the area, where a rogue car was headed straight for other cars, and eventually a building. He cursed and ran towards the car. He had no idea on what he could do. Mech had the ability to disable to the car, and hell ever Tail Boy had some kind of super strength.

He did the only thing he knew to do, swallowing the car up into a portal. He didn't even know if the people had survived running into the other cars that they had to have done to get to this point. But he had to try.

Taking in something so large caused him to stumble, falling on his knees. He hoped that the illusion that they had ran off into a grass field and lost speed would stick between the dimensions. When he conjured back the strength, he pulled the car back from the shadows. Panting, he busted the window open, the driver was most definitely dead. He looked back at the passenger, who was. Raised and bloodied but staring up at him in horror. He was alive. He had saved someone's life.

@Shade

Mr. Carpenter slowly tucked the newspaper underneath his arm after catching a glimpse of his victim as he watches from the rooftop of an abandoned building. For weeks, he had been monitoring a certain member of the city council through the newspaper. Although he had the power to understand and alter reality, reading it isn’t a quick process. Imagine every existing thing (animated or not, living or not), and their individual realities as individual books; with Mr. Carpenter having the ability to read, edit the book and control fate by will; however, they are so much books to read before editing, all interconnected with each other; comparable to a tangled web of continuous self-writing stories.

This politician’s profile is very impressive—in the sense where everything that people know about him is an absolute lie; and one of the things that Mr. Carpenter detest is a politician puppet master wearing a fake halo. This city council member should be punished.

The masked villain changed his gaze to the car of the politician: a black Cadillac DTS; based from its history/reality, it was just recently manufactured. Other than that, he noticed a blonde middle-aged man in a suit: the driver.

Mr. Carpenter started arranging the incidents in his mind: first, the driver will suffer from and the Cadillac's tires will burst before dangerously swerving toward a hardware store with glass walls a few miles from here. Hopefully tools, metal poles, and sharp objects will crash through the window to wound the politician; however, Mr. Carpenter didn’t care whether the politician will die from his injuries or not. To be honest, the masked villain preferred to prolong the suffering of the Aelham politician—and that can’t happen if he’ll die early.

In the scene, once the politician and the driver got in the car and drove away. Mr. Carpenter opened the Aelham newspaper once more. Large black fonts proudly showed themselves, “Former City Council Member Reelected despite Unsettled Case.”

“Pathetic.” He murmured.

@Shade "Viper." she paused, considering him for a moment before she spoke. "It's a shame I'll have to beat you up next time we meet." she grinned, a hint of malice in her eyes. "I can't promise I'll go easy on you."

@Viper "Shade, they call me shade. And you?" He glanced back at her.

@Shade "Some would say that makes it my unlucky day." she quipped, smoothing out her coat. She glanced at the guys back, raising an eyebrow. "What do they call you anyway?"

@Viper He just shook his head. "Yeah, saving that girl had heartless written all over it. It's your lucky day though, I don't carry cuffs." He turned away from her.

@Shade Her lips twitched at that and she shrugged. "Yes." she smirked and tapped the insignia over her . "No moral code, makes life easier." she was lying of course. She had a code when it came to sleazebags, other then that she was pretty immoral. "You can try to cuff me, but I'm sure you're not stupid enough to believe they'll hold me."

@Viper "Would you rather me cuff you for attempted murder? He hasn't gone far, I can sense his sleeze. He was drunk, probably passed out a few alleys over after that beating. I'll drop him off at the station." He watched her demeanor. She was a little...unstable. "But seriously, putting blood in your hands would be worth it?"

@Shade His statement made her bristle. She stalked toward him, invading his personal space. "I am nothing like him! He was going to her! Anyone who does that doesn't deserve-" she cut herself off, and took a few steps back. Her hands reached up to tangle in her hair, like she usually would when she was frustrated. Her hands hit her hood and she dropped them to her sides, clenching her hands into fists. "I didn't know Legend was in the business of saving bad guys."

@Viper Shade sidestepped out of the way just in case. Super strength was a rash power and easy to call upon. He would be half beat to death before he could even get a move in. He took a deep breath. He had to stay calm. Crossing his arms, he stood between her and the entrance to the alley so they wouldn't attract passersby. "And doing to him as he almost did to her makes you any better than him?"

@Shade Viper scoffed, unimpressed by the hero. "Congratulations." she replied. "You also let the dirtbag that tried to her get away." She stepped forward, still brimming with anger. "People like him don't deserve to live, he'll do it again, and that'll be on you!" Frustrated, she lashed out at the building next to her, taking a chunk out of the brick side.

@Viper The shock wore off and sighed in relief as the heap of the man had gotten away. Even if he had done a bad thing, he didn't have the right to die at the hands of evil. He looked back at the girl and stepped away. Was she going to attack? His muscles tensed as he waited. "It's not very nice to beat someone to a pulp. I got the girl away."

@Shade Viper saw red. She kicked at the man, holding back enough that her foot didn't go through him. The man groaned and coughed up blood. She hated people like him, he was nothing more then scum. She picked him by his coat, ready to bury him in the wall. She was so focused that she barely registered the tugging on her arm. She turned her head to look at the idiot who dared interrupt her. The shock of seeing the figure before her snapped her out of her haze, she blinked at him, unsure of what to say. Hi? off? Hold on lemme kill this scum and then we can talk? Belatedly she realized the person didn't have a renegade symbol.

@Viper The scream caught his attention and he was already on it. Mech always knew how to throw him in the sector that would catch him off guard. He slid form one shadow to the next, bypassing roofs. He ignored the scuffle, unsure of the problem as he grabbed the girl. She wasn't any older than he. "I got you." He muttered, phasing out of the alleyway with her. She was terrified. Of his attacker? Or of him? Of both most likely. He buttoned up her shirt. "Run, a couple of streets over there's a convenient store, you should be safe there. Call a cab or your family, don't walk alone." He warned before stepping back into the shadows and into the alleyway.

He watched in amazement as he saw the female figure slam who assumed was the assaulter into the ground. The man was barely alive. It seemed he was always picking up people's mistakes. "Hey, break it up!" He pulled on the female, but stepped back in shock at the renegade insignia on her .

@Shade Viper crouched, watching the city hum with activity. Aelham was a ty place, but it hadn't slowed that much and Viper preferred to be above the streets, where the noise was the loudest. She also didn't have time to deal with petty crooks hoping to make a few bucks by robbing young girls. The wind was cold tonight, making the girl break out her longer coat. She tugged her hood surreptitiously, making sure it was still pinned in place. As much as she loved her hair, it was kind of unique, which meant people remembered it. So she kept it hidden. A sudden scream drew the young villains attention, people screamed all the time in Aelham, but it was the kind of scream that made her pay attention. Quickly she moved toward the sound, clearing the spaces between buildings easily. The scream had only come from a few alleys over, so Viper stopped on the roof above the alley. Taking in the scene below her; a man had forced a girl against the brick side of the building, trying to rip the clothes from her body. The girl was screaming and hitting the man, but it did little to stop him. Without a second thought Viper stepped off the ledge and dropped behind them. Before he could notice she was there Viper grabbed him by the neck and hauled him away from the girl. "Piece of ." she spat, throwing him against a wall.

*to examine.

@Shade "ing, really?" Night Owl hissed under his breath. He could've eaten like a rich bastard for a month with that bag. Thoroughly annoyed, he high tailed it in the opposite direction, after sticking the business card in the pouch for Rodey you examine.

@Night Owl "No." He hesitated and pulled a business card out of a secret pocket. "If you wanna get by, then maybe it'd be smart to pick a side." When the sirens sounded he checked to make sure the guys were secure one more time. He walked out of the alley, using the shroud of the shadows and dropped the goods on a cop car and disappeared.

@Shade "I'm on my side," Night Owl answered, scoffing as the bag was taken from him. "Gotta get by somehow in this city. Come on, you can have a piece too, I promise I won't tell anyone."

@Night Owl Shade was panting by the time he ran into the right alley. He snatched the chain out of the guys hand and stuffed it back into the bag. "Whose side are you on?" He heaved, pressing a button on his wrist. He tied the men together with the rope they had and emptied their weapons. "I've notified the police."

@Shade Night Owl caught up pretty quickly. They too a turn down an alley and he was practically on top of them.
And then he jumped, and he was literally on top of them. They landed with a collective "Oof" and a thud as they both hit the ground.
"There, ing happy?" Night Owl muttered to nobody within earshot. He picked up the bag from one of the groaning masses beneath him and looked through it. "To the victor," he said, pulling out a piece at random. It was a dangling silver chain. He kinda liked it, figured he could get some good money from pawning this .

@Night Owl Shade cursed as he lost the guys. The maze of alleyways were confusing. He had found the alarm source. Just a jewelry store heist. But still.

@Shade Night Owl let an irritated breath out through his teeth. Rude, he thought. His eyes followed the petty criminals down the street. They turned a corner, right into his usual territory, and he rolled his eyes and sighed. There was a squeak from his belt.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up about it," he muttered, taking off in that direction.

He knew plenty of shortcuts in this area, but the rooftops were definitely the quickest, and he was able to keep his eye on the runners.

@Night Owl "Not your division?" Shade snorted. "Right, so you're a bored guy, or maybe a woman if you roll that way, who dresses up and skulks around. Do us all a favor and stay out of the way." Shade scaled down the side of the wall, heading for the trouble. Knowing his luck he would be too late, Mech would kill him, petty from or not. Damn, he shouldn't have let that guy distract him.

@Shade Night Owl raised his eyebrows. "Uh, not my division," he said, starting to stroll in the opposite direction.

@Night Owl "Clearly." He muttered. A sound caught his attention and all of a sudden he was in front of Night Owl, peering over the edge of the roof. "Damn it." He cursed as he watched a couple of guys race down the streets. An alarm rang out in the distance, signaling those guys were up to no good. "Give me a hand," he looked at the other.

@Shade Night Owl snorted loudly. "Neither! He was a rapper, dude! Hero of rap, maybe, but he wasn't /that/ good. Clearly, you aren't the real Slim Shady," he remarked, enjoying the joke by himself.

@Night Owl "Slim....Shady?" Never heard of him. He reclined back against the closest wall, arms crossed. He felt more comfortable in the dark. "Was he a hero or a villain?"

@Shade "Yeah, you know, like Slim Shady," Night Owl said, apparently finding it important enough to turn around to explain.