[center][b]Michael[/b][/center]

"What?" said Mikey with a bit of incredulity, ignoring the flash drive, "I'm pretty sure we're already one of the most wanted criminals in the nation, considering we robbed a big bank with just two people, made off with a ton of cash, killed and maimed guards that stopped us, and used our powers openly. We might not have gotten away if I hadn't have distracted that damn waterbending monk. I did what was [i]necessary[/i]. You did exactly the same thing Sir Vault Tosser."

"As for that thing," he said, pointing at the flash drive, "Who the hell cares what's on it. They've probably got it encrypted or passcoded or something, and even if they didn't, what's it worth to us?" Still, Pheonix picked it up and placed it inside his gi, "I'm going to finish this job so we can get our money, and patch my wounds up as well." He walked back into the gloom of the tunnels, his voice echoing through them, "You do whatever you need to do, Mr. Pacifist. Maybe get some of that shit sold or something."

It was already quite dark by the time Pheonix found himself walking along the abandoned streets of the docks. You knew the place was run-down when hardly even any drug dealers or thugs patrolled the street, let alone hookers. In fact, Mikey found himself a little put-off by the incredible isolation and silence as he walked, pulling down his mask and lighting up a joint. He seriously doubted he'd encounter anyone dangerous or that could identify in such an empty area.

Pheonix paused for a moment at a dimly-lit street corner, the light long since broken, and took a long drag as he looked down the other streets. The black-clothed man exhaled a pungent cloud of smoke and leaned against the beaten bricks of what must have once been a warehouse, "We really need to get some wheels... This walking shit is getting annoying." The drop-off wasn't too far away, their employer liked their secrecy, but Mikey wasn't in much of a rush. It would probably be a few more hours before they showed up anyway, and Mikey wasn't particularly patient.

Still, he remained leaning against that dilapidated old building, his joint slowly burning away as he inhaled the famous plant. The weed wasn't very strong but Mikey didn't give a shit, he just needed something to get the edge off. The bank had stressed and worn him out, not to mention his brother then proceeding to give him shit about making sure they escaped, [i]I didn't[/i] want [i]to kill or maim those people. That fucking monk forced me to, and besides, he stopped most of the damage anyway. What the hell is with Finn? I don't remember him being such a pussy. We were robbing a bank, not going to Disneyland.[/i]

Pheonix took another hit, "He never did want to run with me and the gang. I wonder what the guys are up to..." Mikey's wonder was interrupted by a shadowy figure [i]floating[/i] onto a street not too far from him, [i]Huh? Another 'superhero'? Is this one after us too?[/i] The ninja stayed glued to the wall, casually watching the stranger from the shadows, hiding the ember of his still-lit joint on the other side of the bricks. The figure had something out, a phone maybe, or a camera. As they once more disappeared into the gloom, Mikey thought to himself, [i]If they're after us... I need to do something... But why check that building out?[/i]

He mulled it over for a few minutes before his curiosity got the best of him. Their employers wanted their prize at midnight, so Mikey reasoned that he had plenty of time as he walked over to the building's front, [i]They didn't enter the front... So maybe they went in the back?[/i] Circling the building, Pheonix spotted a third story window that had been carelessly left open, [i]Really? Maybe... That's it![/i]

A few minutes later and Pheonix had scrambled onto the roof using a fire escape. He walked over the ledge right over the open window and looked down, [i]Good thing I'm not afraid of heights...[/i] Mikey took another drag on the joint, tossing away the tiny bit that was left as he exhaled and pulled his mask back up, [i]Time to find out who this is and if they're trying to fuck with the Regel brothers.[/i] The ninja went over the side quietly, climbing down onto the window sill and into the room, determined to hunt down this unknown man, deciding he'd announce his presence with a cocky, "'Sup," if the figure was still in the room.

[center][b]Malcolm[/b][/center]

A sewer cover popped off in a dim alleyway, an enormous beast barely fitting through the opening before sliding the metal back into place. It was night already but there were still quite a few denizens walking the sidewalks just outside the alley as Malcolm collected himself and went over the plan in his head. Sure that it would work, he stomped out onto the sidewalks, causing dozens of people to stop dead in their tracks and watch, awestruck, as this armed and armored man just casually walked past them and into a comic book store.

The cashier, an incredibly skinny white dude with bloodshot eyes, stared at the walking tank who was standing at his counter. A few moments went past with just the two of them looking at each other as some of the customers started to notice the Executioner, most of them continuing on about their business. Finally the stoner laughed, "Dude, nice costume! You look just like The Executioner from Youtube!"

"Youtube? What the fu- You know what, fuck it, I'm doing this the easy way." Malcolm ripped one of his desert eagles from its holster and fired into the roof, causing everyone to panic and drop to the floor or take cover, "Listen up you sexless geeks! I need one of you with a computer or laptop to look at a flash drive! Now! If one of you doesn't come forward within the next five seconds I'm going to waste this pothead!!" He pointed the beefy pistol directly at the cowering cashier, "[b]Five...![/b]"

A fat bastard with a serious case of acne and an affliction of neckbeard quickly came forward with his laptop, "Okay! Okay! I'll do it! Just hand it to me, I'll look!" Malcolm gave the drive to the man, who plugged it into the machine as it rested on a shelf. A series of black screens came up along with a bunch of code that made zero sense to Malcolm, but the geek quickly pulled up a screen that said, "Phase One." A list of locations followed, detailed as being labs and research facilities, each one marked as being owned by either The Tower or Carver Industries.

A flashing "Error: Source Code Two Required" was at the bottom of the list, causing Malcolm to point at it, "What the hell does that mean?" The neckbeard answered as well as he could, "It's missing the rest of the code. There's a second program that communicates with this one, I guess."

"A second program..." Malcolm muttered to himself as the TV in the store caught his attention, the anchor talking on it, "...The police have stated that the bank and armored car robberies that occurred today were completely unrelated..." His eyes narrowed inside his helmet as his brain quickly drew the connection, "Huh... So I have this one... And whoever hit the bank must have the other one..."

The fat ass suddenly piped up, "There's something else here, it's called 'Phase Two' but it's asking for a password." Malcolm looked down at the screen, and sure enough, the neckbeard was right, "So crack it or hack it or do whatever the fuck it is you computer geeks do."

A few moments passed before the nerd nervously said, "Uh... I'm not a hacker... but I've got a friend who I think knows one, says the guildie calls himself one of the best." Malcolm put the desert eagle against the fat man's forehead, "Then you call your friend and get that hacker's number, and you put me on the phone with him right the fuck now."

[center][b]Elizabeth[/b][/center]

Officer Collins woke up with a splitting headache on the floor of the bank, her clothing completely soaked, and a bit of ice on her forehead. The robbers were long gone, as were the civilians, as Police Chief Roberts stood over her. The black man was a bruiser, yet strangely approachable, "Enjoying yourself, Officer Collins?"

"If you call getting knocked the fuck out enjoyable, yes," Elizabeth groaned as she sat up slowly, the ice sliding off her forehead. Whoever placed it there was also long gone. Her mind instinctively told her it had to have been that cocky ass monk, yet another masked vigilante fucking things up for the police. As she got to her feet, Collins took a look around the drenched, desolated bank. It seriously looked like a war zone. Anger welled up in her again at the thought of that damn monk, ruining part of her plan.

She looked over at the dead bodies of the guards, as various police officers and detectives were combing the bank for evidence. Only, if there had been any, it had literally been washed away by the vigilante. Elizabeth remembered seeing blood from what must've been bullet wounds on that crazed ninja, but she knew it had washed away because of the sprinklers and the monk's waterworks. She had seen both of their blue eyes, one with light blue, the other with dark blue, and that the skin they showed was clearly white, but eye color, race, and approximate height didn't really narrow things down.

Officer Collins sighed as she unsteadily walked over to the bank tellers' counters, looking for the glass she'd hit the metalbender with. The fucking monk had ruined her blood evidence from the firebender, but maybe her glass idea worked. Roberts walked next to her, watching her closely, "What the fuck happened here, Collins?"

"You already know what happened, sir. I did my best, saved what lives I could, and slowed them down. Unfortunately a vigilante showed up, which you've probably already seen from the bank's cameras. He didn't exactly help things..." She leaned against the counters and looked at all the glass, [i]Good, still here, not fucking ruined by water either. There has to be some kind of blood evidence on at least one of these shards...[/i]

"Actually, this mysterious duo managed to knock out the cameras somehow. There was also another robbery that happened at almost the exact same time as this one, of an armored car." Roberts looked at the glass, wondering why Collins was staring so intently at it. Her eyes searched the counter like a hawk, trying to spot at least a bit of blood, "Really? Knocked the cameras out? And another robbery? Interesting... Was this one a diversion for the truck?"

The Chief rubbed his prickly chin, "I don't know. Video from the internet and from nearby stores of the truck robbery show just one man attacking it, defeating five guards, and then talking with what we think was The Executioner."

The shards of glass suddenly started hovering as Elizabeth tightened her grip on the counter, "[i]What?[/i] Why would [i]that man[/i] be guarding an armored truck? Is he a mercenary now?" She motioned for one of the forensics specialists to come over to her. "Hell if I know, Collins. There's just too much we don't know. This is all starting to get completely out of hand, and my gut is telling me it's going to get much worse." Roberts plucked one of the shards out of the air, examining it closely, swearing he could see a few dabs of dried blood as the forensics specialist came over. He placed the shard into the man's evidence bag as Collins pointed a few more shards out to put into evidence, "Sometimes I underestimate how brilliant you are, Elizabeth. Hopefully you and the other detectives can get something out of this hellhole."

Collins blushed for a moment before quickly getting a hold of herself, "Oh, uh, thank you, sir... Maybe I should be made a detective then? You know, have a job, title, and pay befitting my responsibilities..." Chief Roberts sighed as they started walking towards the entrance of the bank, glass cracking under their feet, "The Mayor doesn't want you in a position of power, you know that. I don't think he trusts you, he might believe you'll turn against us. As far as we know, every other Super is a criminal, a rogue, or a vigilante."

"I know, sir, I still don't understand what his problem is," complained Elizabeth. The Mayor had been the major person standing in the way of her gaining more official power, not to mention a raging hard-on for demanding that all these rogue Supers be brought to justice. Perhaps such a powerful man was worried that superpowered people would overtake him. Elizabeth had a myriad of ideas about how to gain control of the city, but most of them required her openly leading an Anti-Super Taskforce.

"Neither do I." They stopped in the entrance of the bank, "Look, I've got to get back to the office and deal with paperwork and even more reporters. I've told the press these two incidents are unrelated but my gut is saying they are. I'm giving you express permission to do anything you need to do to figure this out." He raised his eyebrows at her and squeezed her shoulder as he whispered, "[i]Anything[/i]. Meaning you don't fucking tell me if it's not something we need to put on the books. You find these bastards and bring them in." Elizabeth nodded in understanding as the Chief walked to his car.

She looked back into the bank and quickly came to the conclusion there was nothing left to obtain from the crime scene. The only real bit of evidence would probably be the glass shards if they came up positive for any blood, and whatever recordings the police could find of the duo made by bystanders. Which still left Elizabeth high and dry when it came to knowing who the hell these two were.

Elizabeth went back to the precinct and to the office she'd been given to work out what the hell was going on. She spent hours there staring at the wall, looking over what evidence they had, until she was sitting on her desk and noticed night had fallen. Collins returned her attention to the wall, with its various tacks, photos, and lines of string connecting them, "Two robberies, done at the same time... Video of the truck robbery shows a briefcase... And I do remember the metalbender clutching one safety deposit box in particular... Although the briefcase does explode... But the Executioner probably rigged it do so on purpose, that's just his style..."

The police officer interlocked her fingers behind her head, "So what's the connection? The truck was clearly for the briefcase, and whatever had been in it. If the Executioner rigged it to explode, then he probably still has the contents on him. And since the mystery duo escaped, they made off with whatever they took too. But the truck was attacked, and the attacker failed to take the briefcase, so whoever wanted the contents failed... Unless it's two opposing factions..."

"Damn it!" raged Elizabeth, telekinetically shattering a coffee mug against the wall, "There's too many possibilities. I need to find this..." Her mind tugged on murky memories, "Pheonix and his accomplice, or the Executioner." Collins sighed and continued staring at the wall, trying to tease out something she was missing...