[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/H3gQQuc.jpg?1[/img][/center]
[right][sup][b]STAR Labs. Harlem. New York City[/b][/sup][/right][hr]
The Blue Beetle hit the ground quietly, the small gravitational dampers he had installed on his boots and the knuckles of his suit doing their job as designed. He flipped open the padded gauntlet on his left forearm and pressed one of the buttons underneath, shooting the ripcord back up into the Bug and sending the craft to hover higher, ensuring it was out of view from prying eyes.

Not fifteen yards away, Ted could see the two men guarding the rooftop entrance. His goggles enhanced his vision in the dark, and what he saw surprised him. The two of them looked like they had been in a paint store explosion. Clearly divided streaks of technicolor swirled on them like they were something that popped out of a fun house. Each of them had white hair that almost seemed to glow even in the darkness. To say they looked bizarre would be an understatement, but then again he was dressed in a blue, beetle-themed getup, so maybe he wasn't the best judge of such things.

Moving silently as he could towards them in the shadows, he listed in on their conversation, attempting to gleam anything he could from their conversation.

"Why the hell are we here?" one asked the other. There was something odd about the way he talked, as if he was partly here and partly not. "I thought we were going to tear this city apart? That we'd really wake the normies up."

"There's gonna be plenty of time for that," the other one responded, that one with less of a tranced cadence. "Boss said he needed something here. So here we are."

"What does he need?" the first one asked.

"Dunno," the second shrugged. "Doesn't pay me to ask questions."

[color=6ecff6]"Does he pay you to look like unicorn vomit?"[/color]

Blue Beetle sprung into action with a quip he couldn't help but blurt out. Catching the two men by surprise, he swept the leg out from the closest one, being the one that sounded like he was half drunk in their discussion. He fell backwards, hitting his head on the roof which in turn knocked him unconscious. 

The other rainbow criminal yelped with surprise and lept backwards in a twisting backflip. The man's agility was surprising, almost superhuman. But Ted didn't let it throw him too much. He tracked the colorful criminal through the air and kicked off the ground to reach his landing point. When Ted reached it, the acrobatic criminal sprung back once again, attempting to land on his hands to escape once again. Instead, Ted managed to snag the man's foot out of the air and slam him into the roof. He crumpled, and Ted took the opportunity to zip tie his hands and feet together with a proprietary restraint he had designed.

"Who the hell do you think you are!?" the technicolor goon yelled at Ted. 

[color=6ecff6]"I'm the Blue Beetle, nice to meet you. Oh my god did I just say 'Nice to meet you' to a bad guy? Gotta work on my witty retorts."[/color]

"What are you, some kind of cop?" the criminal stopped struggling against his restraints, realizing it was in vain.

[color=6ecff6]"No, I'm what the cops should be,"[/color] Ted responded without thinking. That's what he wanted. It's why he started this project in the first place. Too often he saw things that turned his stomach on the nightly news, especially in the wake of the pandemic and the unrest that followed. If he could be better, if he could show that there was a better way, maybe he could affect some real change in the city. [color=6ecff6]"What are you, a reject from Burning Man?"[/color]

[i][color=6ecff6]Still got it, Teddy boy.[/color][/i]

"We are the chaos that is the true state of every man. We are the kaleidoscope of emotions that society tells us to hold back."

[color=6ecff6]"Ah, so you're coo-coo, got it,"[/color] Blue Beetle responded as he made his way towards the door. Before he reached it, however, he noticed the unconscious man he had taken down first had reverted from the brightly colored state to looking like a normal guy. It made absolutely no sense, but Ted didn't have any time to stay and figure out how that worked. He had business inside.

Stepping into STAR Labs felt odd to Ted, he had to admit. They were technically a competitor to Kord Sciences, even if the two had worked together in the past. This lab, if he remembered correctly, was more focused on the biological sciences. They had been one of the spearheads in the development for the vaccine to the recent pandemic.

That thought sent alarm bells off in his head. If someone was here, they could be stealing information on the vaccine or the virus itself. In the wrong hands, that could lead to devastating consequences.

He brought up his HUD again, and saw the six remaining criminals were farther in the building on the floor he was now occupying a room at the end of the hall. As ted approached, he saw that the door was closed. He flipped the setting on his HUD, bringing up the heat signatures in said space. One of the intruders was leaning against the door, and Ted had to smile to himself for that.

Rearing back, he slammed into the door, flinging it open and slamming the man behind it into the wall. He bounced off back towards Ted, who slapped a quick set of restraints on his hands and pushed him into two of his friends.

[color=ed1c24]"Well,[/color] [color=0076a3]looks[/color] [color=ec008c]like[/color] [color=f7941d]it's[/color] [color=39b54a]time[/color] [color=92278f]to[/color] [color=fff200]go,[/color]" a tittering voice said from the other side of the room. Ted looked up to see another multi-colored menace, but he was different. The colors on his body wavered and waned like a lava lamp in full tilt. His white hair looked like it crackled with energy. He took something off his belt and tossed it at a window behind him. The device created a small explosion, and the rainbow many tossed a pack over his shoulder and made his way towards it. Before he jumped, he called to his men, [color=9e005d]"Make[/color] [color=00a99d]sure[/color] [color=0072bc]he[/color] [color=f7976a]doesn't[/color] [color=8882be]follow."[/color]

With that he jumped, and something cracked on the back of Ted's head. As he was distracted by the human kaleidoscope, one of his goons had circled around and hit Blue Beetle with a chair. The suit was strong and protective, but that didn't mean it made Ted impervious to pain. He saw stars and dropped to one knee to try and regain his bearings. He sensed another strike, and rolled out of the way. Unfortunately, he rolled right into a kick across the jaw from another one of the goons.

Pain shot through his face, and he quickly realized that this was not going the way he expected it to. The one who kicked him attempted another swift strike, but Ted's instincts and Judo training kicked in. He shot out with a hand and pulled on the outstretched leg of his attacker. Using his momentum against him, the Beetle directed him into the guy with the chair. Their heads collided into one another, and each crumpled to the ground.

The stars started to fade from his eyes as he stood and readied himself for the two remaining interlopers. One sprung over a table in a head first attempt to spear the Beetle, who spun out of the way, allowing the man to crash through a table on his own.

The last man standing was larger than his counterparts, and cracked his massive knuckles as he approached Blue Beetle. He lashed out with some devastating looking punches, but Ted easily avoided them, even in his semi-punch-drunk state. The man was big, but he was slow and clearly untrained. Meanwhile, Ted had decades of gymnastics and martial arts training behind him. Ted studied the pattern of attack, and waited for his opportunity. The man missed wildly with a right hook, which Kord spun around and delivered a spinning elbow to his chin. The blow felled the big guy, and Blue Beetle got to work restraining the incapacitated criminals.

Heading to the hole in the wall, he pressed the button on his gauntlet again, and almost instantly the ripcord up to the Bug lowered in front of him. He zipped up and checked the scanners for any sign of the leader. There were none, and he cursed at himself under his breath.

[color=6ecff6]"Good job, Teddy boy. Blew it on your first night out."[/color]

Talking to himself brought shooting pain through his jaw. He flipped back his cowl and looked at his reflection in the glass of the Bug. He could dimly see the swelling starting where he was kicked. Sighing once again, he instructed the Bug to return home on autopilot while he went to go get an ice pack from the small  first aid section of the airship.