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[indent][sub]September 21st, 2064
Aboard N-Train
Brookside, South Castle Island[/sub][/indent]

Miles smiled warmly. This whole 'socialization' thing was going much better than anticipated. Miles had always been told to 'be himself' by all sorts of teachers and mentors and whatnot, but he had never thought that being a classic fiction nerd would be able to score that many brownie points. Mrs. Gilligan from 11th-grade English would be proud. [color=D2042D]"VHS? Wow, that's really something."[/color] Miles tried to envision what an actual VHS tape would look like. While he had heard of them before, they weren't something that any teenager in the year 2064 would have ever been exposed to in person. The idea that a physical reel of tape had to be inserted into a physical box to play a movie or TV show was absurd in an era where everything was holographically projected. [color=D2042D]"Sounds valuable. And cool. Maybe we should watch it sometime."[/color] 

Miles' successes on board the train were cut short with Blitz's hysterical laughter. Any ounce of confidence that Miles had managed to accrue over the last 5 or so minutes vanished into the dark crevice of Miles' heart as quickly as it had come, and Miles turned beet-red once again. He wasn't the type to enjoy this type of ribbing, even something so benign as the suggestion that Blitz had made. Miles, in both a physical and metaphorical sense, had very thick skin. Miles quickly found, however, that Sophie did not have such social hesitancies, as she quickly fired back at Blitz with a comment of her own, a comment that gave Miles a bit of a chuckle. 

The pale-skinned youth took a breath as he focused back on the situation at hand. He mustered up his confidence with a deep breath and scootched a smidgen closer to Sophie. [color=D2042D]"S-so, Soph. Can I c-call you Soph?"[/color] Miles stammered, before continuining. [color=D2042D]"I was just w-wondering, y'know, if maybe sometime you'd like to-"[/color]

Before Miles could finish the sentence, a loud [i][b]BOOM[/b][/i] echoed throughout the vicinity, and the bullet train came to a bullet halt as sirens began to go off. Miles found himself tumbling over Sophie and rolling into the wall with a [i]thud.[/i] It was then that Miles learned how important seatbelts were. But he also learned, of course, that this was no random malfunction. Funtime was over. The pirates were here. His rumors were confirmed when the PA system came online, and the conductor's soothing voice resonated over the loudspeaker. "Sorry, folks, we currently have...well, an obstruction on the tracks ahead. I'm currently phoning back to HQ to get info as to how to proceed- woah! Hey! Please, I'm unarmed! I have a wife and kids, sir, please don't-" The conductor's bloodcurling screech then resonated throughout the train, accompanied by the sounds of electricity, signaling to Miles that the man had likely been tazed or electrocuted in some way. 

The young hero immediately understood what the pirates were going for here. Put the people that couldn't defend themselves in danger and force the heroes away from their defensive positions and directly into a trap. It was smart planning on the pirates' behalf, and it was effective, as there was no doubt in Miles' mind as to where he was going to immediately. The weapon, while dangerous, could be retrieved. Human lives, once ended, could not. 

With that thought, Miles quickly scuttled to his feet, removing Crimson Vengeance from his jacket and activating it. With a hum, the red blade of energy arced out from the hilt. Miles turned to face the rest of the group. [color=D2042D]"S-somebody keep the nuke safe,"[/color] Miles commanded, though his tone had minimal authority to it. With that, Miles dashed out from the rear train car, moving forwards across the train with one goal in mind- save people. That's what being a hero was about, anyway, right?

Miles dashed through a couple train cars, including one full of people that Miles vaguely recognized as fellow heroes, before his sprint was stopped in the adjacent car, where two armored pirates had just walked in from the other side. Miles may have been a bit of a pushover, but Dhampir was not known for his restraint, especially with hostage-taking nuke-stealing jetpack pirates. The pale youth, in a marked departure from the rambling nerd that had been sitting on the N-Train moments earlier, flicked his weapon at one of the pirates. The laser blade arced across the car and caught one of the pirates before he could even react, slicing through his armor like butter and sending him toppling backwards into the wall. If he survived, his days of piracy were long over by now.

Before Miles could address the other pirate, he was hit by a concussive wave of sound that blasted him into the wall of the traincar. Miles yelped like an injured puppy as the pirate approached Miles, holding a shotgun-sized weapon with a large cone-like muzzle- a sonic blaster, used for both nonlethal and lethal incapacitation. The uninjured partner of the two pirates aimed the weapon at the teenager. "Time to die, freak!" he shouted with as much bravado as he could muster as he prepared to fire. 

Meanwhile, back in the storage car, one of the pirates, using a laser cutter, quickly cut himself a round entry into the car. As soon as the circular slab of metal fell, jetpack-enhanced pirates hopped into the storage car one-by-one, weapons drawn and at the ready as they prepared to secure their loot. [/center]
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[indent][sub]September 21st, 2064
'Totally Innocuous Warehouse'
Brookside, South Castle Island[/sub][/indent]

Piranha Boy was hardly paying attention to the job. Instead, he was smoking a gigantic vape, which was exuding a foul-smelling banana-mint combination smoke. After all, while there had been numerous studies connecting vaping to popcorn lung, there had not been a single one connecting it to popcorn [i]gill,[/i] so Piranha Boy considered himself pretty much invinicible in that regard.

As he continued to slack off on the job, though, he was hit by a dose of divine justice as his entire body was suddenly ensnared by a bolas. His vape sent flying, the Piranha Boy's upper body was wrapped up by the gadget, and he was sent careening to the floor with a loud yell, his restrained figure flopping around like...well, a fish. 

As he yelled for help, the other interns/drug workers continued with the act despite the very real pressure they were under (credit to their theater minor in undergrad!) They ran around the room willy-nilly, yelling things like "SHE'S HERE" and "HIDE THE DRUGS" and "WE'RE ALL GOING TO JAIL!" as they scattered like birds in the wind. This was, of course, signaling for the heroes (at least, the remaining ones) to act fast. It was also incredibly over-the-top, but in a world where crime was super, everything was over the top. Maybe the smartest of the smarts could figure out the act, but of course, the smartest of the smarts generally were smart enough to stray away from this kind of spandex superhero/vigilante crime-fighting business. Generally. 
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