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Quil slipped around the helicopter, still in liquid form, searching for any indication of what the helicopter contained. He looked over the gold he found in the cargo, making sure to not alert anyone to his presence, and decided it was not worth it. He looked at the police who were talking to a strange man, who must have been the super that Pen had seen, although this one didn't seem very icy. He slunk closer to the conversation to listen in, and hid as a puddle. Unnoticed by immediate viewers, he waited.

Outside Vega National Bank, LA

Robert Night looked around.  He spoke into his comlink, "AEGIS, prepare the Flurry for immediate departure!"

"Situation normal.  Preparing for extraction."  came the cool, computerised reply.

He whirled around the snowbank, created a path of snow and ice to the roof of the bank, and shot a grappling hook into the sky, hooking onto the Flurry as it ascended into the sky...

He climbed in, and proceeded to conduct a close fly-by of the scene before cruising back toward the Great White North...

Duke got nervous as the crowd of reporters flooded the scene but immediately became eased as the Police Chief firmly commanded them to leave. Though he had never met this Police Chief before, he felt secure and almost comfortable as he approached Duke. The Chief offered his thanks and a favor if he ever needed it.

"Thank you, sir, but I hope I'll never need it. I saw on the TV that a reporter said the robbers were taking hostages, which is why I came so quickly. Looks like she was wrong."

Just then, the other Super took off in a whirl of snow and ice, escaping into his aircraft above.

"One thing, sir. Who was that guy?"

Duke got nervous as the crowd of reporters flooded the scene but immediately became eased as the Police Chief firmly commanded them to leave. Though he had never met this Police Chief before, he felt secure and almost comfortable as he approached Duke. The Chief offered his thanks and a favor if he ever needed it.

"Thank you, sir, but I hope I'll never need it. I saw on the TV that a reporter said the robbers were taking hostages, which is why I came so quickly. Looks like she was wrong."

Just then, the other Super took off in a whirl of snow and ice, escaping into his aircraft above.

"One thing, sir. Who was that guy?"

The Chief ducked as the AEGIS roared above them. "SWEET JESUS!" As it flew away to the confusion of the LAPD, he shook his head and laughed. "That must have been that ice fella. Shame he couldn't stick around..." The rotund police commander looked around at the glistening snow, melting in the July heat. "The media's taken to calling him the 'Snowman', if you can believe that. Say, what's your name? You got a secret identity or something?"

"Staff Sergeant Ellis Duke, sir. But people just call me Duke. No secret identity. Never saw a need for one. That "Snowman" must be hiding something, though. He ran off as soon as he could. And if the reporters ask about me, I'd prefer if you kept my name out of it. I'm no hero."

Duke then held his hand out to the Chief for a handshake.

"It was good to meet you, sir, but I'd rather not stick around with all these reporters."

"Staff Sergeant Ellis Duke, sir. But people just call me Duke. No secret identity. Never saw a need for one. That "Snowman" must be hiding something, though. He ran off as soon as he could. And if the reporters ask about me, I'd prefer if you kept my name out of it. I'm no hero."

Duke then held his hand out to the Chief for a handshake.

"It was good to meet you, sir, but I'd rather not stick around with all these reporters."

The Chief returned the handshake with a firm grip. "Of course. Your identity is safe with us." He looked around. "Do you need a ride out of here? We can get you past that crowd over there."

"I just need to get to my car. I'll make my way out. Thank you, sir."

Duke walked through the crowd to his car, lowering his hands to tilt cameras toward the ground as he walked past. He then got in his car and revved the engine, creating an opening as people stepped back, then drove away.

Quil, now satisfied with the conversation, returned to searching the site, and found the weapon used by the robbers. Interested, he actually slipped inside the weapon, noticing modifications not normal of typical weapons, or typical of anything for that matter. Intrigued, he continued looking through the weapon. Deciding he was safe for the moment, he hardened his body around and inside the device to be the same texture and density of rubber, and on the inside examined the gun for any traceable objects.

Surprise surprise, same alleyway
The action was settling down, and the gun was not yet mentioned, it seems the weapon that initially captured Porshen's interest was unrecovered. Still, it was necessary to intercept it. If his calculations were correct, the sound coming from the gun was either using a very peculiar form of propellant, or wasn't kinetic at all. This would be very useful to study.

Retrieval of weapon: high priority. Insufficient time to arrive on scene, chance of detection: high. Best course of action: interception at police station. Travel time: ~10 minutes. Notes: fatalities will bring further attention.

With that, he let go of the wires he's been seeing through, setting off towards a spot where a police car would likely go through, which also seems to be lightly populated. He never had a chance to test his weapons systems, this would be an imperfect chance to do so. He'll need to reform a heavy nail gun for this. A simple pea-shooter won't stop a car, would it?

Seattle, WA

It was 3:00 AM at the old gas station. The elderly manager had already shut up shop and turned off the lights as he left hours ago. Despite this, one car was still there with it's lights on, illuminating a small dark sliver of road. Two men, both inner city gangsters, were standing over the figure of a badly injured boy that was curled up on the ground next to the main gas tank. His hands and feet were bound and wrapped in some kind of insulation.
"Where's the gas?"
The other figure hesitated for a moment before handing him a nozzle. The first man sprayed the incapacitated boy with it. The fumes caused him to cough and gag, and it burned his the cuts and bruises.
"What- *cough* what are you- *cough, hack*"
"Shut the hell up. Did I say you could fucking talk?"
The boy struggled against his bonds but realized it was useless. Even if he could manage to eat away at the insulation before the air heat burned his hands off, it would ignite the gasoline around him and detonate the tank, killing himself. Tears welled up to his already burning eyes.
"P-Please! You don't have to do this!" His voice cracked as he sobbed and gasped for air. "I'm sorry! I- I- I won't-"
"You won't do fucking anything. This is it for you, you little bastard. Now shut up: I can make this hurt a whole hell of a lot worse if I want." Leaving the kid there to cry silently, the first man walked over the car to retrieve something from the glove box.

The other man shifted uncomfortably.
"Look, boss, I'm sorry, but this just ain't right. He's a kid! This is beyond fucked up..."
The boss turned around and stared hard at the man. "That thing isn't a kid. He's a super, and not only is he a super, but he's a deadly son of a bitch too and all too happy to show it. I know you saw what happened back there: you can't ignore that shit. No, this isn't fucked up. Do you know what would be fucked up, though? Letting him live, letting him grow up to be more powerful and even more fucked in the head than he already is. By letting him walk away from this shit, we're leaving him behind to turn on the world and kill way more people than he ever could now. This isn't murder. This is fucking public service."
"Alright, alright. I get it..." The man looked down at the struggling kid, who looked back up at him, pleading silently for help. "But why the torture? Can't we just put a bullet in his head and keep moving?"
The boss laughed. "Well, I suppose you got me there. Truth is... Ah hell, I didn't want to tell you this, but I'm killing him like this because I want to. One of those houses he lit up had my family in it. Only my oldest girl who was visiting, Liara, survived. My wife, my boy, my youngest... They didn't make it out."
The man stood there for a long moment, stunned. "I'm so sorry, boss. If... If I had known-"
"You didn't, because I didn't tell you. I kept it a secret to keep them safe. So much for that, eh?" He removed what he was looking for from his pocket: a cheap box of matches.
He continued. "Don't worry about it. If you still don't want to be a part of this, I respect that. You can go to the car and turn on the radio if you want. Just don't get in my way."
"Okay. Okay. I'm just gonna do that then." The man walked away from the scene and opened the driver's seat, turning on the radio. The kid, seeing what was happening, started up and tried to move away from the boss,.
"I'M SORRY!" By now he was screaming. "I'M SO SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO! I DIDN'T MEAN TO-" He hit his head against the cold iron gas tank, briefly quieting him.  "Please... please stop! Stop! I can... I can..." The man kicked the kid hard in the face.
"You can fucking die, that's what you can do. You make me sick to my god damn stomach. You didn't stop when they were begging for mercy, why the hell should I?" He stepped back from the expanding puddle of gasoline and drew a line towards him with the nozzle. "You know, it's funny. They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Although I'm pretty sure both you and I prefer it warmed up."

He reached down to strike the match and seal the deal...

At the beach, there was still quite a bit of ruckus about the bank situation. Rochester couldn't be more furious with how it turned out.
Why couldn't one of them slip up and get a hostage killed?  he asked to himself.
Anti-super sentiments would plummet, to be sure, and the fact that election season is pretty soon didn't help ease the Senator's stress. Something had to be done. America needed to fear them again. In other words, a Supervillain needed to be made. But who? Who could be the perfect symbol of how mutants are dangerous to everyone and can be anywhere? As Rochester got into his limo and tried to brainstorm, he wondered if such a perfect opportunity would ever present itself...

James Caspiel sat in his office at his home, sipping at a lukewarm cup of coffee. The liquid was 28.6931 degrees Celsius at this point, barely palatable, but that's not what you drink the coffee for anyway. As he idly browsed the news, a headline popped out a him:

"SUPERS THWART BANK ROBBERY IN LOS ANGELES"

Apparently, three people were robbing a Vega National Bank branch in LA suburbia (one, James quickly realized, that he occasionally frequented) when two vigilantes showed up, apparently independently of one another, and stopped the robbers with little police help.

Well, his money was safe. And that was probably what others thought. Calculations ran through his head, predicting at least a 11.652% rise in public approval for the existing super laws. Of course, the numbers could easily sway in the opposite direction if the supers were the perpetrators instead of the saviors...

James would have already robbed the bank long ago if he had though he could get away with it, albeit through less direct and more nonphysical methods. In fact, he had tried it a bit, phishing for bank accounts and such, just on a very small scale. James ultimately decided that the risk of getting caught as too high (above 1.0%) and he chose to gain his money legally (with the help of his power of course).

James absentmindedly fiddled with his pen, equations of angular momentum and centripetal force appearing in his mind as he spun it in his hand. He then returned to his work, drafting up plans for a new complex in Irvine...

NCIS: Office of Special Projects, Undisclosed Location near Los Angeles

Barry was working late trying to solve a case about a dead petty officer. He was just about to wrap up for the night when he heard the police radio light up in chatter. Just yesterday, he had finished rigging up his system to hear all major police chatter all along the west coast. It was working perfectly.

"Be advised, possible 10-10 and 10-70 near Shell gas station along Madison St. There may be a minor involved. All available units, please respond. Over."

Barry knew it was in Seattle and that he was in LA, but normal police response times would be around 12 minutes. He quickly crunched the numbers and realized that he could get to Seattle with tachyon enhancements (mach 13.2) in less than 6. He knew he would be fatigued, so he quickly grabbed a protein bar, donned his (almost) frictionless suit, and sped off.

Old Gas Station in Seattle

It felt like he was running for forever. A kid's life was in danger, and he just wouldn't be fast enough. Thankfully, he arrived in time just to hear a man's voice, "You can fucking die, that's what you can do. You make me sick to my god damn stomach. You didn't stop when they were begging for mercy, why the hell should I?" The man stepped back from the expanding puddle of gasoline and drew a line towards him with the nozzle. "You know, it's funny. They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Although I'm pretty sure both you and I prefer it warmed up." Barry's head was spinning. "They" were begging for mercy? Who? he thought. What the hell have I gotten myself into? What exactly did this kid do? It didn't matter. There was a kid's life on the line. He sped in just as the man struck a match, hoping to get the kid out.

-snip-

NCIS: Office of Special Projects, Undisclosed Location near Los Angeles

Barry was working late trying to solve a case about a dead petty officer. He was just about to wrap up for the night when he heard the police radio light up in chatter. Just yesterday, he had finished rigging up his system to hear all major police chatter all along the west coast. It was working perfectly.

"Be advised, possible 10-10 and 10-70 near Shell gas station along Madison St. There may be a minor involved. All available units, please respond. Over."

Barry knew it was in Seattle and that he was in LA, but normal police response times would be around 12 minutes. He quickly crunched the numbers and realized that he could get to Seattle with tachyon enhancements (mach 13.2) in less than 6. He knew he would be fatigued, so he quickly grabbed a protein bar, donned his (almost) frictionless suit, and sped off.

Old Gas Station in Seattle

It felt like he was running for forever. A kid's life was in danger, and he just wouldn't be fast enough. Thankfully, he arrived in time just to hear a man's voice, "You can fucking die, that's what you can do. You make me sick to my god damn stomach. You didn't stop when they were begging for mercy, why the hell should I?" The man stepped back from the expanding puddle of gasoline and drew a line towards him with the nozzle. "You know, it's funny. They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Although I'm pretty sure both you and I prefer it warmed up." Barry's head was spinning. "They" were begging for mercy? Who? he thought. What the hell have I gotten myself into? What exactly did this kid do? It didn't matter. There was a kid's life on the line. He sped in just as the man struck a match, hoping to get the kid out.

The kid watched the match fall from the boss' hand and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he heard a loud *crack* like a weird-sounding bullet, and after a moment he realized that he wasn't on fire. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was now inexplicably hundreds of feet away from the burning gas tank. A man he had never seen before in a strange red suit was carrying him, safe from the flames. The other man drove off in the car, leaving the trio behind.
"What... how...?"

By the gas tank, the boss roared in anger. He drew a large hi-tech gun and fired it at the car, which managed to speed away unharmed. "SON OF A BITCH! You damn supers ways have to get involved, don't you? Well, I can put an end to that!" He turned his gun on Barry and started firing.

Barry reacted quickly, dodging the bullets and ripping the gun from the boss's hands. He then stood a couple yards away from the man, and asked, "Why are you doing this to the kid? ANSWER ME!!"