[b]First world bank, hermes and pluto Av.[/b]
Sirens rang on the street corner of hermes street and Pluto avenue. Police forces surrounded the local branch of the first world bank. The robbers had been inside for quite some time. Had it been any other day, the special response unit would be breaching the building already. Most of the force had been dispatched towards the fight between titans going on elsewhere in the city though, so the best the beleagured cops could manage was an uneasy standoff with the perps.

"Come out with your hands up and you will not be harmed!" the police negotiator spoke again. And again the men inside did not respond. That is, unless the occasional potshot from one of them counted as a response. Things were tense, the masked robbers had declared they would kill a hostage if they weren't let go. the deadline for those demands was mere moments... And it looked like the guy in charge of the police on scene was calling the robbers bluff.

All throughout the hostage situation, the ground had been shaken by the distant super-fight going on. None of the robbers had noticed one such tremor seemed a bit nearer than seemed comfortable. Finally, the moment of truth came, and the robbers silently grabbed a hostage and dragged her into full view of the cops outside. It was a young woman, just another civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Last chance cops!" the ringleader of the robbers shouted, waiting a moment to see if he would get a reaction... but none came.

"Heh, stupid idiots... nothing personal love" The man had a heavy british accent. He leveled a heavy pistol at the woman's head an squeezed the trigger... A shot rang through the air, and with a wet thud... the ringleader fell to the floor, a hole spurting blood where his head was just a moment ago. The other robbers turned to the source of the shot... A towering figure, clad in heavy ballistic armor and holding a still smoking assault shotgun. "The only withdrawal you worms are gonna make today is gonna be in lead!" The newcomer shouted as he fired another salvo.

The three remaining robbers bolted for cover, one fell to the ground, cluthing his spurting... The entire foot gone from another shotgun slug. Two robbers returned fire to the man... one was shot in the chest, painting the wall behind him with his lungs. One robber hunkered down behind cover... For a moment, it looked like he could formulate a plan. Then a slug tore through the overturned table he was behind, shattering his upper spine with frightening accuracy.

The entire exchange of fire had taken around six seconds. The armored man looked around at the shellshocked hostages aroun him... Slowly and intently, he spoke. "Any other perps left?" His question was pointed to no one in particular. On average, there was likely to be at least one person still fit to answer such questions. "Upstairs!" The woman shrieked. She was a sobbing wreck, but her eyes shone of an impressed thankfulness.

There was a moment of relative quiet. Someone cleared their throat to speak, but was quickly shut up by a raised hand from the armored shotgunner. Feet coul be heard upstairs, running quickly towards the stairs. Suddendly, the shotgunner snapped to attention and fired a shot. It shattered the upper step of the spiral staircase, and another man fell through with an infernal crash, losing his rifle in the fall. By the time he got his bearings he was looking down the barrel of an assault shotgun. He raised his hands in surrender. "Alright alright! I surrender! go on! cart me off to the slammer already!"

The iron-faced man towering above the robber slowly shook his head. "And waste the honest taxpayers money on keeping your useless ass locked up? I'm sorry, but that's not acceptable." The robber looked shocked at this statement. "Hey man! I have rights! I deserve a proper court..." the man was cut off by a shotgun barrel being forcibly shoved in his mouth. "I'll be your judge... your sentence is death... goodbye". He pulled the trigger, and a final shot rang through the bank.

By the time the police outside had caught on to what was going on, the mysterious saviour was already gone. In the basement, they found a tunnel leading into the city's abandoned sewer tunnels. The police commisioner on scene called off the chase in frustration... Anyone from down there could easily outrun any of the officers on-site in their sleep. "Call HQ! tell em the Judge got some more notches on his rifle... No direct contact, suspect escaped scene before that could happen... As usual."

The commisioner was named Jim O'Malley. An old veteran of the force who had spent half his life making the city a better place. The vigilantism of the judge frustrated him to no end. In his mind, the mysterious armored man was little better than the criminals he regularly massacred. He had sworn before the Mayor again and again that he would deal with the Judge... Yet never had he even come close to finding out who this guy was.

Jim sighed and turned to a fellow inspector. "Anyone up for a beer once cleanup gets here? I feel like we could use it."

[hr]

[b] Athena city sewer town, three hours later[/b]
Luke nesmith fell down into his favorite sofa. As usual, he had been welcomed back with a cheer and a beer from his fellow outcasts. He quite liked this place, it was out of the way,barely even a blip on the NAPD's radar... The perfect place for a vigilante like himself to make his safehouse. With a groan, he leaned forward to get his remote. There wasn't much to see on TV. Just more pointless blabbing about the superhero fight that tore through the city today. The news was playing another clip of the black monster fighting some armored joker. Luke didn't even bother to look whether it was recorded footage or a real-time event. All he cared about was how the thing was being used to distract from the real important news... About the scum he had meticulously reduced to ground beef. Sure, he could kill them as fast as they popped up, but as long as enough of the desperate degenerates of society fancied their chances pretty well, it would be an uphill battle. And the news not reporting on his merciless actions wasn't helping his cause at all.

Sighing, he retrieved an aged mobile phone from the table between him and the TV. He dailed a familiar number to check up on how the police responded. One ring, two rings, three  rings. The familiar voice of Mike could be heard through the phone. "Luke? the fuck ahve you been doing? O'Malley's on the warpath again! I'm stuck doing overtime just for not putting enough sugar in his coffee! And it's unpaid overtime too!"

Luke silently chuckled. It seemed the force hadn't changed a bit since he quit. O'Malley still sounded like the same old asshat, and his friend Luke was as loyal a buddy as always. "Didn't ya hear? six notches in the bank robbery... I was in and out in thirty seconds... Sewr entry." 'Notches'... It was what luke had taken to calling the criminals he killed. Degenerate was too much of a mouthful and perps sounded too official.

"Yeah, I heard... I also heard your intervention saved the life of a hostage... And I approve of that." Luke had always been thankful of Murphy saving bystanders, even if such was usually just a pleasant side-effect of killing violent and dangerous criminals quickly and efficiently. Still, it made him quite the icon to the young edgy crowd online. It had been quite jarring to see police footage of himself being used in internet memes, but he had grown accused to it over time. After all, it meant there were people out there that supported what he did, and that was all he needed to keep going.

" Yeah... I take it there's no leads on me, like usual?"

"Nope, ost of the inspectors are still argueing on what your skin color is, nevermind your identity."

"Oh come on, isn't it obvious I'm black? I mean seriously, back when I was on the force they could at least argue about shit that actually mattered... Anyway, I gotta go, say hi to Jess for me, will ya?"

Jess... Mike's little daugther. Caught up in the crossfire of a robbery gone south, much like the woman Luke had saved earlier. And similiarly saved by Luke's intervention. He could still remember the tears of joy streaming over Mike's face...and the look he gave luke that day. The look of a man that would be his buddy till the day it was his own turn to go six feet under. Luke finished his beer and went off to his workbench... He had some bullets to dig out of his vest and some magazines to start reloading.