[b]San Francisco, California - Trap House - Devon’s Crew[/b]

“Man I don’t believe in all that shit that’s dumb as hell.” A man with a southern dialect was the prominent voice among a group of African American individuals outside engaging in the consumption of marijuana while some amongst them were rolling. They were standing along the sidewalk path leading up to a dilapidated house.

From within the boarded windows house, billows & columns of smoke could be seen escaping through the cracks of the shattered wood covered windows. The man who spoke was licking the ends of a backwood he’d unraveled before sprinkling the contents of a torn open packet within. His fingers tightened crushing the cannabis he had into a smaller nuts before dumping it into the backwood wrapper. 

“Man Ramone just roll the gas formal you it don’t matter if this Shade muthafucka real or not he ain;t fucking with Devon’s trap house, we eating regardless. Big Dev ain’t going get ran outta business cuz of no damn fairy tale so we eating, listen to Uncle Leonard I know what the fuck going on.” Leonard said apparently the uncle too Ramon. He had just finished taking a few puffs of a stuffed back-wood that was passed his way before it was sent along to another man in the smoking circle that formed outside the apparent trap-house.

Ramone took a blue Bic lighter to the under belly of the newly sealed backwood. Running the flames underneath to dry the portions of the wood that were licked and tucked by the hand rolling process. “Yeah I mean I feel it but 3 months ago energy beams came out the sky. Some shit we only seen Goku shooting at Vegeta & Freeza was raining from the sky blasting buildings in LA, Vegas, ATL, Chicago, New York, Seattle, and other places into dust, now we got a virus that’s coming from energy, and they saying colored folks getting powers from it too.” Ramone continued speaking about all the developments taking place among them. As he was talking he took the lighter to the edge of the wood burning the ends and inhaling the reefer smoke as a nice secure cherry was formed.

“Man I guess unc you just know it’s some crazy shit going on nowadays. But all that talk about motherfuckers getting powers from the virus make me wanna run around the beach with no mask ond take my chances. Shit I always wanted to be in the X Men no cap.” Ramone continued ranting on about the possibilities of getting powers from self exposure to the virus while Leonard and some of the others laughed.

Despite standing around getting high and cracking jokes, all of them were heavily armed. Inside the damaged residence there were naked women & a few more dealers inside working on organizing and cooking product. The chemical smell of crack cocaine being made could be sniffed out at the entrance of the door. The chemical smell of rocky cocaine permeated through the thick odor of the marijuana clouds that were being blown about all around the entrance of the drug house. As the two were speaking, the leader of the dealers had emerged from the house. Devon to let people know the next batch of product was almost done and they’d soon be able to hit the streets with it.

“Go ahead and let all ya plays, jays, flunky’s all em know we back. Good crack, strong powder, great dogfood, I want a line wrapped around the door fulla jays we gotta get this money, feds focused on looking for the X Men right now so shit should be sweet right now.” Devon was thrilled with the whole Altered human situation and how much it was pre-occupying police & other law enforcement officials. As he stepped back in the building Ramone was stepping out the marijuana cigar they’d been passing around outside.

“Shit I’m cool with that let’s go, it’s time to get some paper anyway. I ain’t got no more time to be talking bout feds and all this other ole shit that don’t matter.” Leonard exclaimed whipping out his cell phone to text his plays that he had more product. The jays who were looking for opiates of course had been texting him the most flooding him with messages asking him when he’d have more heroin for sale. Thanks to the intense withdrawals that stuff caused he had no shortage of customers even with the Energy Plague going around. 

As he was texting some people he was alerted to the sound of some gun-shots in the distance. He quickly reached in his pocket for his own gun, turning to see Ramone & some of the others did the same. “Aye you heard dat bruh, what the fuck was that? Ion hear no sirens coming so.”

Before Ramone could ask his uncle more questions, his question was answered/ An entire SUV was hurtling through the air. The air-borne vehicle slammed into one of the dealers sending both crashing through the front wall of the crack house, “AYO WHAT THE FUCK!!!!” Leonard yelled out only to see the one who had delivered the vehicle and his co-worker, for lack of a better word into the wall.

Turning with his gun raised at the culprit he saw a man dressed in all black. The man was also sporting a full black mask face covering and appeared to be wearing a TRU Religion jean jacket. But what worried him the most was what the mysterious man was wearing on his feet, black air forces.

“I suggest you all lay down your weapons and get the fuck out of the way If you want to live. I have no tolerance or patience for thugs sitting around wasting their lives smoking gas, selling this trash in our neighborhoods, to our own people.” The masked man spoke as he slowly approached Ramone, Leonard & the others calmly. 

The strangest part about this man approaching was that he didn’t seem to have any weapons of his own. Of course he’d just chucked an SUV at one of their allies, and watched as it catapulted him through a brick wall. No doubt this man had to be one o those people from the news, Altered Humans was it. Leonard quickly changed to make sure he had a ready bullet in the chamber. If this guy could pick up & chuck cars he was getting ready to dump the whole clip on him if needed. “Aye look motherfucker, I don’t know who the FUCK you think you is coming up over here telling us what to do! But you got me fucked up, you got all of fucked up! I don’t give a fuck how many cars you can pick up, yo ass finna die today!.”

Before Leonard could speak any more, two of the others had pulled out their own weapons. They began firing emptying rounds into the mysterious muscle bound aggressor. To their shock & dismay, the bullets did little to deter the mystery man. They watched in disbelief as the bullets crunched up against his skin, having no effect. The man cracked a smile as the flurry of bullets did little to stop him, responding by simply cracking his knuckles.

Jace Williams was very happy with the powers he’d received from the Energy Plague. Upon finding out he could make himself bullet-proof among other things he’d decided to put these powers to good use. Having lost so many people to gang violence, he was determined to eradicate everyone who was involved with them. His violent crusade to end crime had been noticed by the media & attracted some attention of it’s own. The name he’d started going by was Shade, and it was one that was starting to spread through the streets of California from Los Angeles all the way to San Francisco. 

“Yo bruh this the real deal Shade we gotta get outta here we can’t beat this guy! I seen what this mofo be up to on twitter, youtube all that.” Ramone balked, seeing their traditional weaponry had no effect on the masked bullet proof vigilante.

“Oh please don’t stop now, honestly you hit part of my shoulder that was really itching. Ya know one of those hard to reach spots, but I guess if your done I might as well return the favor.” Jace retorted a smirk forming on his face that the defenders of the drug house couldn’t see under the mask. 

The moment of tension would quickly come to an end as Jace went on the offensive. He lunged forward towards his would be killers, causing them to resume firing to no avail. Rushing through the bullets he punched a hole clean through the chest of one of the attackers, jerking his fist back. The shooter fell to the ground his last sight being Jace’s blood stained fist and seeing him spin around to kick another one of his allies.

The gangster went sprawling through the air soaring until he slammed into an impala parked on the other side of the street. As his body collided with the car bashing through the driver side window triggering the alarm the remaining three including Leonard & Ramone seemed to realize that a gun fight with this man wasn’t the best option if they wanted to escape this encounter alive not to mention unscathed. But Jace had no intentions on sparing these enemies, if not for his own powers his body would have been riddled with bullets.

“Going so soon?! Not so fun when your on the loosing side is it!” Jace blurted out as he retrieved the gun from the first thug he’d brutally murdered. He opened fire with the automatic weapon gunning down Leonard & the thug next to him only barely missing Ramone. Ramone had sprinted inside the drug house yelling to the others inside that they were under attack by a masked superhuman enemy who was dead-set on sending all of them to an early grave.

“Oh wow that’s smart go get more grunts that’ll help I’m sure of it.” Jace mocked them as he turned to point the gun he was holding at the drug house. Pressing his finger against the trigger gently, he tapped into his ability intending to use the confiscated weapon as a vessel. Pressing down he opened fire while simultaneously using his power to vastly increase the strength of the bullets. The first round of rapid fire collided with the drug house doing far more damage then should be possible from regular shots.

Of course the shots were far from regular, having the power to increase not just his own physical strength but that of others including objects. As such the soaring projectiles piercing & explosive power was raised to far more dangerous heights.. The front door was sent flying back, and the bullets themselves caused explosions when colliding with the dilapidated property. The sound of glass shattering filled the air as what remains of the windows in the front of the residence were wiped out. The screams of armed thugs & the women inside helping the dealers cook & bag up the drugs was heard.

It was like music to Jace’s ears, nothing made him feel better the hearing the screams of terror of his enemies. He slowly waltzed towards the interest or rather what remained of it. Taking his time enjoying stalking his prey, who were utterly defenseless against his powers. “I know all yall ain’t dead so it ain’t no point hiding. Best thing you can do is say some quick prayers, cause you finna meet ya maker. Doubt it’ll do you any good, the way y’all living y’all going straight to hell. “ Jace mocked as he stepped through where the door should have been.

“Naw bruh only one going to meet Jesus is you.” Jace whipped around to see Devon the leader of the drug house. He had a shot-gun in hand and fired at Jace. The shotgun blast unlike the rounds from the pistols was actually able to send Jace stumbling backwards. Devon seeing the stronger gun had some effect on the muscle bound hero fire again. The second shot causing Jace to grind his teeth as the force from the second round sent him to the ground.

To the thugs dismay this also led to him dropping the gun, disarming him of the superhuman enhanced rounds. As he rose back to his feet Devon sprinted to another part of the house, causing Jace to roll his eyes. While the shot-gun had packed more of a punch it hadn’t left more then a small bruise under-neath his shirt. As he trudged forward to go around the corner to pursue Devon he realized that the dealer wasn’t just running to escape. “Oh shit.”

Jace let out a gasp as a grenade rolled over to mere feet away from him. Within seconds the hand-held explosive detonated. The explosion causing the area around Jace to be enveloped in flames caused by the subsequent explosion, as well as eradicating what was left of the wooden staircase that was next to him. A yell was heard from Jace as the blast consumed him. In the other room Ramone stood next to Devon with two other men and three women. They’d scrambled to toss all the remaining drugs they had in the house including the crack cocaine they’d just finished cooking into bags when the fire-fight had started outside.

“Oh shit I ain’t know you was packing them motherfuckers.” Ramone let out taken aback by the fact that Devon had ready access to grenades.

“Shit bruh you gotta always be prepared. We living in a world where motherfuckers can tank bullets, breath fire, and fly, a 40 ain’t going cut it in the streets now.” Devon replied. He took a few steps to peak around the corner as the smoke cleared hoping to be welcomed by the site of Jace’s charred body. 

He was met instead with a violent death so quick he had no time to react. A cell broken cell phone from one of the men Jace had slaughtered outside had been lunged forward into Devon’s neck. Blood splurted from his neck as the head dealer fell to the ground gasping for breath in his final moments. Ramone raised his own weapon shooting both of the men still standing then pistol whipped the girl carrying the bags of drugs and cash.

“Fuck that I’m outta here.” Ramone stepped forward pushing one of the other two girls to the ground causing her to land on the ground with a thud next to Devon’s corpse. The girl screamed loudly as Ramone took off running towards the back with bags of cash & narcotics slung over his shoulder. Within seconds he was outside hopping in a gray 2007 Honda Civid parked outside. He heard the sounds of the people he’d left inside screaming bloody murder as he started up the vehicle. Plunging the keys in the ignition and moving the car into drive he slammed his foot down on the gas.

“YESSUR!!!! I’m getting the fuck outta here.” Ramone yelled out in excitement as he began speeding out from the back of the house. He had no ill feelings about turning the gun on his own co-workers if It meant escape. Not only getting away but getting all of the drugs & the money. He was ecstatic heart racing as he pressed his foot down intending to go as fast as possible to get out of the neighborhood.

In the corner of his eye he noticed some shadow that appeared to be getting larger and rapidly so. As he looked into the rear view mirror to get a glimpse of what was going on, he was suddenly catapulted forward into the front windshield of the car. Jace had used his great strength to leap into the air several miles and land on top of the Honda. The crash landing into the front of the car caused it to bend forward crushing the vehicle’s engine & sending the non seat belt wearing criminal into a face front meeting with the glass.

He stumbled out the car bleeding and more then likely with a couple bones broken. “Fuck….what the fuck are you……damn it.”

“You said you heard about me ain’t you, I’m Shade.” Jace stepped forward towards the gangster who was now bleeding profusely. He fell forward onto the cement unable to move further with the injuries he’d taken from Jace literally catapulting from the sky onto his car. Jace kicked the injured dealer’s head breaking his neck and killing him instantly on impact.

“Your a real piece of shit, shooting at your own people just for a head-start and you wasn’t even getting away, dumbass.” Jace waltzed over to the bags he’d dropped filled with cocaine, crack, heroin, & cash. Jace poured the drugs out on the ground & tore the plastic bags that sealed them apart. Narcotic powders spilled into the street and he brought his foot down literally stepping on the solidified crack rocks crushing them into powder mixed with the street’s asphalt. After a few strength enhanced stomps onto the drug packaging leaving it spread through the ground in unusable condition he felt satisfied. Checking the bag to ensure that the only thing that remained was the illicit drug money and no remnants of the hard drugs. “Alright looks like my work here is done.”

In the distance Jace could hear the blaring of police sirens. Between the gun-shots, the exploding bullets he’d used on the drug house & all the other violence that followed his confrontation with Devon & his goons it was no surprise that law enforcement was on the way. He didn’t want to be around when the police cruisers showed up to the scene. He sprinted off with the bag of drug money towards his jeep which he’d parked a few houses away from the trap-house when he’d arrived. He slung the bag of drug money into the back-seat, and took off going in the opposite direction of the approaching cruisers. It felt good to be able to use these powers to make a positive impact on the world, even if he had some extremely brutal bloody methods to do that. Of course the fact that he was taking whatever money the criminals he murdered had on hand with him was an added bonus to his murderous vigilante operation. The vicious killings of Devon’s crew would soon make it’s way to the news & social media accompanying stories of other gang members & operations that had met a violent end at his hands in the past few weeks. 

[b]San Francisco, California - Liberty Condo - Jonah Hanes [/b]

Watching the latest Reaper video had stirred Jonah up and not in a good way. Seeing this suspected superhuman radical spewing nonsense about Altered humans rising up against the Government was something that boiled his blood. It also served to justify his overly aggressive behavior towards the newly empowered superhuman population.

He’d wrapped up his notes on the latest visual communication from Reaper, then bagged up his MacBook as well as some other supplies. He’d informed his partner Angela that he’d be making his way to the office soon and he intends to keep his word. With the President’s announcement of the mandatory blood testing he was sure they’d have their hands full at Liberty’s head-quarters.

California was starting to become a hotspot for Altered human activity, and with people like Reaper spreading radical messages of revolution he was certain that further conflict with Altered humans was imminent. It wasn’t long before he was all packed up and getting into his car. As he was plugging his keys into the ignition he felt his phone vibrating once again.

This time however it wasn’t a call but a text message & not from his main partner either. Taking out his phone once again he was welcomed to a message from Jennifer. She was one of the newer recruits to Liberty, but her credentials spoke for themselves. Although he was wary of any and all newer operatives to the operation he’d vetted her himself pouring through her documentation a couple times to verify her identity.

It didn’t matter to him that she’d passed the rigorous background checks implemented by the CIA, Homeland Security, and even Liberty. The threat they were facing was dangerous, resourceful & unprecedented. All that went out the window as he glanced over at the message on his screen.

[i]Hey, I have a contact who may possibly be able to track down Reaper. See you in the office.[/i]

“I might have been wrong about you after all, if your telling the truth that is.” Jonah spoke out-loud to himself. Having just reviewed the latest uploads from Reaper, he was eager to bring him to justice. If she really had any leads on Reaper’s whereabouts then he wanted to review the intel & make a move. While Reaper hadn’t been associated with or tied to any active or previous altered human crime scene’s yet. He was a dangerous radical who was no doubt spreading a message that he was sure resonated within the hearts & minds of some of the Altered humans he was employed to investigate.

He sent a response text to Anya/Jennifer.  [i]I’m on my way to the office as we speak, I’ll be there in no less then 25 minutes. Whatever you’ve got on Reaper spring it on me there, right now bringing him in is one of Liberty’s top priorities. [/i]

[@Xandrya]

Jonah pressed send, shooting the message to the agent. He briefly thought about informing Angela about what he’d just been told but decided against it. He had no idea what intel she actually had about Reaper. As such he wanted to wait to see what she had before he actually passed any news about his potential location & capture to anyone else in Liberty. With thoughts of making a dent in the operations of dangerous Altered human radicals on his mind he departed from the condo.