[i]*BEEP BEEP BEEP!!*[/i]

The blonde's eyes slowly opened as her arm fished blindly off the couch for her phone. She drew it up to her face to read it, the harsh glow nearly blinding her. [i]7:45[/i] stood out on her background of the movie poster from [i]Fast Five[/i]. Rubbing her face, she swung her legs over to stand. The pallor twilight filtered in through her blinds, casting illumination over the dinky apartment of wooden furniture, clothes strewn about the floor, and Pepsi cans piled high. Hope had been right. It was an anxious day. And she hoped it to be longer than tonight would be. Got the bottom floor all walled up, second floor's base was almost finished, and she had her inbox flooded with police transcripts, videos, and potential leads. Rising to stretch, a thought hit her.
"Oh shit," she croaked from dry mouth. Hope was finished working at about 3 that afternoon and decided to take a nap... but promised Seeds she'd be up about 7:30. Too late now. She swiped in her code to unlock her phone and was met with 3 missed messages and a phone call. Searching through her contacts, she found the [i]Hax R Us[/i] designator she had assigned to Seeds and his friends and tapped the screen to give him a call. One ring, two rings, three...
[i]"Hello?"[/i] came the distant echoing voice.
"Yo," Hope cracked, picking up a half-full can of Pepsi from her wooden coffee table and choking it back to relieve her sore throat.
[i]"What happened to 7:30? Thought you gave up on us. Or were dead or something."[/i] Hope let a puff of air escape her nose.
"I was taking a nap. Had a hard day at work and I'm probably not going to sleep tonight anyway. You got anything new for me?" Hope hesitated a little bit, peering out her blinds to watch the sun fall behind the horizon. "Actually, give me a round up. Head's still kind of foggy."
[i]"Actor's still not in costume yet, is she?"[/i] Seeds taunted from his... mom's basement or whatever.
"No, she's not. Just give me,like, fifteen minutes to gear up. Tops."
[i]"Alright, alright. Once you've suited up, we'll talk. Call me when you're awake."[/i]
"Yeah, that too." As always, Hope hung up without saying goodbye. She let out a yawn and began to roam around her shitty little home to gather supplies.

Hope was dressed in a black V-neck T-shirt, a pair of paint splattered jeans (fit around the waist, loose around the legs), a pair of black Vanns skate shoes, and wearing a look as if she had awakened from the grave. A black backpack was slung over her shoulder, already packed up with everything she'd need for the night. Superhero hoodie/cape, snowboarding goggles she got on the cheap from her friend Ryan, neck gaiter from same friend, utility belt from the Army surplus store about ten blocks away, tire iron of great justice [i]with[/i] an incredibly handy sling to keep it from falling from her back mid-flight and jacking up someone's car insurance rate, and ultra light paintball vest that could stop... actually, she was unsure what the hell it could stop. Might make punches land a little softer. Looked badass. Whatever, the badass part made it worth wearing. Letting the loose apartment door slam behind her, she trudged up three flights of stairs to make her way to the roof. No one was there but her, as per the norm, when she began to [i]really[/i] get ready for action. Vest on, hoodie on, goggles on, face mask on, gloves on, tape around the knees and ankles, shin guards and knee pads strapped and ready to go, utility belt snapped and ready for action. Hope made sure before she left to prepare for the worst, which she stored in the belt. Just the usual gear, zip ties, Leathermann, et cetera... plus her smokes, device chargers, trail mix and a Red Bull. With all her stuff strapped up and read to go, she threw her empty backpack on top of the doorway to the roof so no one would mess with it, slung her ghetto melee weapon over her shoulder, and pulled out her phone. Time to kick it.
[i]"Hello?"[/i]
"You ready to rock? I know I am," Wisp stated confidently. She began to pinwheel her arms and hop on her toes, with other exercises to get her warmed up. Sure, the night didn't promise much in the ways of ass-kicking, but as long as she got what she wanted it was gonna be a good one.
[i]"Okay, so here's what we know so far..."[/i] Seeds began. Wisp was prepared to be bored to death from his explanations, but whatever. Part of the job. She much preferred the action and left him to the thinking, but a little thinking never hurt anyone. At least to her knowledge... that would be something to Google for later.
[i]"There was both an armored car and Wentworth Bank robbed today, the armored car obviously belonging to the bank. The armored car was hit second, the bank was hit first. What does that tell you?"[/i] Wisp thought for a second or two, long enough to prompt Seeder. [i]"Wisp? You there?"[/i]
"C'mon, Seeds! I [i]just[/i] woke up, throw me a bone or somethin'" she moaned.
[i]"It means that one was a distraction for the other. They wanted all the cops at the bank so that the armored car robber could get away scott-free."[/i]
"But then why were there two of them at the bank? They'd only need one as the distraction, right?"
[i]"Survivability, possibly? Didn't want the loner at the bank to get killed."[/i] Wisp wrinkled her nose.
"I don't think so. What if there were [i]two[/i] things to steal?"
[i]"Then it would have been best to divert all resources to one site, probably the car. Both entities got away, remember?"[/i]
"Ehh..." Wisp droned. She hadn't paid attention to all of the information Seeds was trying to shove up her nostril and into her brain.
[i]"*Sigh*... Yes, Wisp. Both of them got away. I'll go over that later."[/i]
"Sleeping, remember? Wait, what if it was one thing, but two different people wanted it?"
[i]"Hmm... You may be on to something, there. We'll have to look into it."[/i]
"Okay level 90 nerd lord, what else?"

[i]"Well, the security detail was enhanced at both sites, and they weren't cops. Six at each location, one with a special guest."[/i]
"Oh?" Wisp mused. Things were starting to get a little more interesting. Sounded like fun stuff for her to do.
[i]"Yes, they were decked out in tactical gear, and the recorded gunfire was automatic, not something like pistols like the cops use. Also, the police responded to a call at the bank instead of reacting to police radio. It means that-"[/i]
"They were private security. Sounds juicy. Who's our special guest?"
[i]"Did you watch even half of the videos I sent you?"[/i] Seeder huffed.
"Uh, [i]sleeping[/i]. Remember? Some people don't steal identities for a living and have, like, a normal work schedule?"
[i]"How do you know what I do for a living? Didn't think I ever told you."[/i]
"You did right now, smart guy!" Wisp laughed, "Okay, so who's behind door number one?"
[i]"If you happened to actually [b]watch[/b] any of the videos I sent you, one of the security party on the armored car calls himself 'The Executioner'. He's-"[/i]
"A walking tank covered in guns, grenades, and enough bullets to fuel the city of Juarez for a month?" Wisp interrupted, "Yeah, I know 'im."
[i]"You two have met?"[/i]
"Ha, [i]God[/i] no. I have a very active lifestyle that includes things like, y'know, [i]breathing?[/i] I'd like to keep enjoying those kinds of things."
[i]"Riiiiiight... So, the robber of the armored car didn't have any casualties. Fit looking dude in a black and red costume. Kinda like Deadpool, but, y'know... not."[/i] Wisp growled.
"Rrrrrr, son of a bitch, Jack-o!" she snapped.
[i]"Jack-o?"[/i]
"His name's Black Jack, he's a merc. Ran into 'im a couple of times before. One time I had to fight him to a standstill at the art museum on Lafayette. Next time he actually helped me out against Los Caballaros... until he shot Don Juan drug boss in the head before I could take him in. Pfft, shit always gets complicated whenever he's involved."
[i]"So you know them both? Awesome! Saves me from having to make you watch the helicopter news feed. The armored car was damaged in the explosion right before Black Jack and the Executioner split, so it's been taken in for repairs. I've tracked it down to an impound lot off 3rd and Jefferson. Might be some evidence there, and the license plate never showed up on video. If you get me that, we can trace it back to its origin point and found out where the guards piled in."[/i]
"Sounds like a plan!"

Wisp smiled underneath her mask as she sauntered over to the edge of her apartment building and looked down. Five floors. Quite a drop for the less talented. She fished her earpiece up through her vest to keep it in place as she spoke to ArchDork of Nerdsalot, securing her phone snugly beneath the trail mix in her belt so it wouldn't fall out. Taking a few steps back, she sprinted to the ledge and jumped. But she did not fall. Wisp simply kept going, straightening her body to streamline herself in the air as she took to flight. She was a relatively new flier, so it was still a thrill rush whenever she shot through the sky. It was exactly like skydiving... only with no parachute and over building tops. Something Hope could definitely get used to. She kept low to the building tops to avoid being seen from the streets and partly to better master moving up and down suddenly with better ease. It wasn't long before she reached 3rd and Jefferson, maybe just under twenty minutes, but she [i]was[/i] pulling maybe 120 back there. Perching herself on a nearby rooftop, her eyes scanned the area through her goggles. The impound lot was easy enough to pick out, but she was looking for the armored car within. And any cameras that would happen to be around. Didn't want to show up on anyone's TV, now would we. She managed to spot two of them: one on one of the street lamps, and one on the building within the compound.
"Seeds, two cameras, got some kind of techie fix for this?" Wisp asked. She kind of hoped not, her method would be much more fun anyway.
[i]"No, I've tried. If you're seeing cameras, it's CCTV. I can't hack those."[/i]
"CC what now? I thought you were a [i]Master Haxor[/i] or some shit?" Wisp taunted with a deeper voice on Seeds made-up title.
[i]"CCTV means Closed Circuit Television. It's a recording, Wisp, I can't hack someone's cameras if they're not going anywhere. Do you even know how hacking works?"[/i] came Seeder's irritated reply.
"Don't feed the trolls, Seeds. Spray paint it is." As Wisp prepared to vault from the rooftop straight to the lamp in the parking lot, Seeder interrupted her.
[i]"Wait! If you spray over the cameras, someone will know it was you. Who else can get up that high? Don't know about a security system, but the records are showing no employment for anyone in a guard position. Break in, find the CCTV terminal, and take the recording."[/i]
"Ugh. Fine. I'll break into the stupid building."

Wisp leaped from her two story perch and overtop the ten foot high fence with ease. Razorwire might stop someone from climbing over, but it didn't stop anyone from skydiving into their parking lot. Wisp landed softly and marched over to the building. Simple wooden door. Piece of cake. Pulling her tire iron from her back, she gripped it with both hands and sent it into an arc, increasing the weight on it and smashing it into the doorknob. The metal knob hit the concrete step with a few violent clinks as it bounced around and the door lazily swung open. Wisp produced her flashlight from her built and clicked it once, lighting up the dark interior.
"Alright Seeds, what am I lookin' for?" she asked quietly. No one was there, but it was a force of habit.
[i]"Something with monitors, DVD player hooked up to it. Start turning on TVs, when you see footage of the impound lot, you've got the right one."[/i] Wisp skulked around the building, opening doors and turning on TVs. From her third room and second monitor, she could see a picture-in-picture broadcast of the lot.
"Bingo," she whispered. There was a DVD player hooked up to it, with the recording light flashing. With a press of a button, the machine spat out the disc for Wisp to pocket.
[i]"You got the disc?"[/i]
"Yeah, no problem."
[i]"Good, now let's see that license plate."[/i]
Wisp waltzed out into the impound lot uncontested. The armored car was simple enough to spot. It was both the largest thing there and the only one that looked like it was hit by a fucking mortar shell. All of its tires were shredded, the grill was mashed in, windshield cracked. Explosion sure did a number on it. Wisp grabbed her camera and started taking pictures: of the exterior damage, Wentworth Bank markings on the side, tire damage, and license plate. The front one was shredded, but the back one was completely fine.
"Bomb went off in front of the truck, huh?" Wisp commented.
[i]"Yeah, the Executioner took a hit from it, but footage shows that he simply lumbered away."[/i]
"[i]Now[/i] do you know why I don't want to fuck with him?"
[i]"Hey, is the dash cam still intact?"[/i] Seeds ignored. Wisp opened the side door. No interior damage. Bulletproof windshield must've done its job. She noticed the digital camera on the front and pocketed that one as well.
"Yeah, I'll let you pull whatever off of it when I'm done her. I'm gonna check in the back really quick." Wisp threw open the back doors and took a few photos as well. Nothing. As expected. But it was better to be safe than sorry. She pulled her phone out of her belt and connected it up to her camera with the charging cable.
"Sendin' you the photos of the truck first," she announced as the pictures began to show up in her gallery.
[i]"Alright. How about the camera?"[/i]
"Hold on a second, this takes time." After sending him the pictures she'd taken of the armored car, she linked up her phone to the camera and started pulling the video on to it, only to send it to him afterward. The entire process took about six minutes, but it felt a lot longer than that. Wisp used this opportunity to pull her neck gaiter down and light up a cigarette.

"Talk to me, Seeds. What've we got?" Wisp inquired, crushing her finished cig out underneath her shoe. Twenty minutes later, still no cops. Guess there wasn't a security system after all. Why would there be? It was just a ratty parking lot, and it already had razorwire fences around it.
[i]"Sorry about that. Had to trace the video back to where the car took off from and had some Paladin trouble."[/i]
"What's Paladin?" Wisp asked, expecting some kind of high-tech answer she probably shouldn't have asked the question to.
[i]"A Paladin's a holy warrior of the gods bent on smiting evil. They've got really high defense and-"[/i]
"I'm investigating two robberies and multiple murders, breaking into buildings no less, and you're playing fucking [i]World of Warcraft[/i]!?" she screeched into the phone.
[i]"I told you I had a raid toni-"[/i]
"Get the fuck of your videogame and give me my goddamn sitrep, Seeds! Lives could be on the line you dumb fuck! Jesus fucking Christ!"
[i]"Okay, okay! Geez... poured through the video, here's what I got. The tires were popped before they ran into Black Jack, so he must've known they were coming beforehand. And with morning traffic, he couldn't have set up the trap more than ten or fifteen minutes beforehand."[/i]
"Yeah. What else?" Wisp inquired, her tone very aggravated. If it were possible to bitch slap someone through the phone, she'd do it right now.
[i]"After a little bit of driving, they took a left on Duluth Way from 29th, out by the docks. A place called Loche Security is situated there. Private security firm, bad reputation. I didn't think they were still around. I'm sending the coordinates to your phone."[/i] Wisp took no hesitation in taking off again, vaulting over the busted up armored car with a handspring and flowing straight into flight.

The docks weren't terribly far, only around ten minutes when Wisp landed on one of the buildings. She checked her phone again. 9:12. Not bad. She'd go check out the bank after this. Hopefully the security would be a little lighter by the time she got there. Her phone had told her that she was about seven or so buildings up from Loche Security. She bounded from rooftop to rooftop as if she was on the moon, sailing over the alleyways gracefully until she found herself on what her phone designated as the right place. Peering over the side, she could see that it wasn't marked. No sign, no building number, no nothing. It looked like all the other crappy buildings around it.
"You sure this is the right place, Seeds?"
[i]"I'm tracking you with GPS, and yeah. That's it. I couldn't get anything on this place, though. They've done a lot of record hiding, everything's probably local. See if you can get me some documents or a hard drive, would you?"[/i]
"With pleasure," Wisp retorted as she stepped off the building, floating to the ground below. She was going to take some more pictures. If they didn't have anything to do with her investigation, she'd always be able to taunt the police with them. If all else failed, at least Reddit would love them. After walking across the empty street and pulling out her camera to snap a few pics, Seeder spoke up in her ear.
[i]"Shit! Motherfucker!"[/i] he exclaimed.
"What?" Wisp hushed, concerned. She kept her eyes peeled for any threats as she backed out of the clearly lit street.
[i]"Fucking Death Knights! So OP! Why don't you try a real class for a change?!"[/i]
"Seeds, I am gonna fucking strangle you if you don't turn off that damn game and start hacking bank records or finding me more videos... or... or fucking [i]something![/i] God! It's like I'm working with a fucking preteen!"
[i]"Hey, Wisp. ...Wanna see my Yugi-oh cards?"[/i] Seeder taunted.
"UURGH!! It's like you're fucking five!" she growled, only to be met by his laughter. "If you're not gonna help me, then shut the fuck up and let me focus. I've got [i]real[/i] people to save." Wisp lifted off the ground with a powerful jump, landing on top of the roof of Loche Security once more. No roof entry. Okay, she could deal with that. She worked her way to the back of the building, facing the docks and walked down the wall. One of the windows had to be open. As luck would have it, the first one she tried was unlocked. Made sense, who would lock a window three stories off the ground? She clambered into the office, dimly lit by the light of the moon, and took out her flashlight.