Ally stood behind the counter of The Little Ice Cream Parlor in one of Long Beach's many shopping centers near the coast. It usually gained a lot of business, considering the normally hot weather, but today was a bit chilly. Although they parlor didn't gain many customers on this particular day, a few spotted up here and there. Currently, she was chatting with one of her coworkers while she cleaned the back counters.

"Yeah, I know she shouldn't have called in so late, but she's sick, I can't have her getting us and customers sick too," Ally defended, picking up little sprinkles and peanuts.

"You should have made her come in for at least a few hours," her coworker replied, pushing a broom across the tiled floor.

"Maybe if we were more busy, but look around. Do you see any customers?" Ally asked just as the door opened and a tall man walked in.

Both of the young women behind the counter immediately rang out, "Hi, welcome!" out of instinct. Ally put aside the cloth and moved to the front to help the customer. "Hey, how may I help you?" she asked casually.

"You guys make smoothies?" he asked.

"Yes, they come in small and large," she replied, pointing to the cups of each respective size.

"Gimme a large banana and blue berry smoothie. Make it thick, I don't like them watery," he said, slightly forcefully. Ally didn't think too much of it, as many customers were rude or rushed in demeanor.

So, as to not make an already irritated customer angry, Ally quickly made the smoothie and handed it to him. "You didn't put strawberries in this, did you?" he asked.

"No, just the banana and blue berries," she confirmed.

He nodded, and with that, the man simply walked out the door. Ally was momentarily shocked, and so was her coworker. Once she registered what was happening, she quickly launched herself over the counter and out the front door. "Hey! You need to pay for that!" she shouted as she went after him, but it was too late. The man had a getaway car waiting for him.

Many people watched the scene, and like her they were all powerless to do anything about it. Ally let out a sigh, shook her head and walked back into the parlor.

"I have security on the phone!" her coworker told her, voice shaking. Ally didn't understand why the younger woman was so nervous, but as the girl tried to speak to security, her voice kept trembling and failing. Ally sighed again, took the phone and gave security the description of the man. Really he could have matched half the city with his generic "thug" look.

"Alright ma'am, we'll get on it," the voice on the other end said and hung up. Ally knew this was a lie. What could they possibly do to stop anything? The security here was just for show and to stop skateboarders. Other than that, they just called police who weren't always the best help either. The woman put down the phone and sat down on a folding chair in the back.

The irritated woman threw her hat with the store's logo onto the computer desk and leaned back into the chair, closing her eyes. "Hey, I'm taking a break!" she shouted to her coworker who was still shocked in the front. She needed to calm down or else she might do something stupid.

"It'll be alright, they'll all get what they deserve in the end," she thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days later, Ally sat at a metal table with the usual group of friend she spent time with. Being with them always brought her peace, even if what they were doing wasn't too peaceful. Right now, the group was seated in a shopping center at a circular metal table, in metal chairs. An umbrella stuck out of the center of the table, providing only half with shade. The sun wasn't blistering, but it wasn't exactly a cool day either. Many people walked in and out through the shops, minding their own business, providing the group of friends the privacy of a crowd.

At the moment, Ally was recounting her story about the smoothie thief. "This guy even had a getaway car! He's so thug that he needs a partner to steal a smoothie?" she shook her head and murmured, "So ridiculous."

"What about you guys? Anything interesting come up?"

----Sorry, posted on the wrong page due to incompetence----

Marcus couldn't help but laugh at the idea of someone stealing a smoothie. "Man that's insane, how desperate do you have to be to steal a smoothie? Not to mention having a getaway car, how absurd! It makes me wonder if the whole thing was planned out, sort of GTA style. Like they had a board with everything mapped out, an escape route, contingency plans. Maybe they stole the car just for this heist, and what if they had a helicopter waiting for them? That would've been dope as fuck!"

Marcus stopped himself, realizing he was the only one interested in his hypothetical smoothie master thieves. Besides, regardless of the nature of the crime his friend had still been robbed. Ally was another victim of the crime wave that was taking over this city. "But for real, I know it sucks. When my dad got shot a few months back it hurt. Aside from losing my dad and struggling to keep the shop open, the loss of a sense of security really hits hard. I don't know if I was just too young and naive before to notice how bad the crime in this town was, or if it really just has started getting bad. But I just feel like I'm always on my toes now. I'm constantly looking over my shoulder and worrying that I could be mugged or get killed like my dad."

Tears started to form in the corner of Marcus' eyes. He thought about how bad things had been since his dad died. Cowl Comics and Games, the store his father had opened, was on the verge of closing down. Then again a lot of businesses were doing poorly in Long Beach these days since everybody preferred to stay in their homes and off the street. "These damn gangs are ruining this town. They're taking our freedom from us, making it hard for anybody to live around here. They just control our lives and there's nothing we can do about it. Damn cops aren't even helping and if they won't help then we're shit out of luck." Marcus stuffed some of his fries into his mouth in an effort to keep himself from sobbing. This is isn't what he wanted for his life, certainly not what his dad wanted.

"Yeah that's insane" Trip said "I mean, don't get me wrong, I've always said your smoothies were criminally good Ally, but this is ridiculous"

He took a sip of coffee and set the cup back on the table before continuing.
"I was out for a jog along the boardwalk this morning. Saw a guy just blow this woman over and snatched her purse. I tried to catch up to him, but the bastard had too much of a head start. Marcus is right, things are really going to hell in a handbasket. The gangs have the run of the whole city. Personally, I think the cops are on the take, but that's just me"

He finished off his coffee and tried to lob the empty cup into a nearby garbage can. It clattered off the rim and landed in the floor.
"This is why I don't play basketball" he said with a grin as he slipped out of his seat to finish disposing the cup.

"I know what you mean," Alvina said, sipping her coffee, "Nowhere feels safe anymore. At work, I always feel like someone will come threaten us with guns or something. I'm glad the library doesn't keep much money around."

She swung her feet, the toes of her shoes brushing the concrete. "It's ridiculous, honestly. About a week ago, some jerk broke into my car. The window was broken and everything. All I had in there was $20. Like, the window repair is more than that." She sighed.

"Not to mention, a girl in my class recently dropped out because she was sexually abused by her ex-boyfriend, who's in one of those gangs, and his buddies. She was too scared of one of them showing up to hurt her again to even go back to school. I wish someone would do something about it. It would be nice not to worry when I'm alone in my apartment that something bad will happen."

---

The young computer specialist was sitting in the corner of the room and listen as the conversation between some of his bests of friends unravel. His lips quirked in amusement as he shook his head lightly. Not the kind of amusement that was to mock them or laugh in their face and their misery, but a more sympathetic one, the one uttered by someone who was also powerless against those gangsters and street criminals. He too once lost a very valuable Persian carpet right inside his house, and right in front of his eyes as the burglar simply jumped out of the window like nobody's business. He tried to call the police then but they didn't even care. He understood that they had more urgent crimes to deal with, but leaving them alone unpunished like that was pretty cruel and unprofessional. This enabled him to have contingency plan and set up home security. It did prevent further burglaries, but sometimes it did not stop daring criminals from taking his stuff.

He gently open the lid on his small laptop, his hand gracefully moved across the keyboard, his fingers tapped quietly on the keys, writing what he wanted on the screen in a matter of seconds. He tapped the 'Enter' key once he stopped dancing on the keyboard. The laptop quickly processed this little search key Alan entered, showing a variety of search results. Alan then picked the top most reliable and easy to understand search result. Then he turned the computer screen towards his friends, making sure that they all saw it, and spoke.

"This is what I've just searched on the Internet. The crime rate at Long Beach has quadrupled comparing to two years earlier. The police forces are becoming more and more short-handed due to these statistics, and they are so busy dealing with crimes such as corruption, human trafficking and drug smuggling that they simply did not have the time to deal with petty issues like a smoothie robberies. Well, no offense."

Alan then closed his laptop, enabling it into sleep mode, as he addressed the entire room with a slight sigh.

"To be honest, if things like this keeps occurring unpunished, then I may have to move away sooner or later. Someday, it may not only be a stolen smoothie, snatched purse, a broken window car but your own life being robbed away."

All with honesty. He was the only one unable to fight around here. For twenty years of his life, he only studied and studied. Never once did he have to touch a fist on anything, or anyone, due to the good environment he used to live in. But now that he was independent and living all by himself, he, for the first time, felt defenseless against criminals like his friends just said. That was the reason he rarely left his accommodation and instead preferred to work at home.

Was there anything we could do against these pesky and morally degrading individuals?

In Long Beach, everyone had stories of theft and crime, and Aimee's companion, Ally had quite the tale to tell. Idly chewing on a cheeseburger as she listened to Ally speak, Aimee looked on with a perplexed expression on her face. A getaway car for a smoothie? Aimee thought, sitting her cheeseburger in the paper tray that accompanied it. "They probably paid more for the gas to escape than they would have for the smoothie. That is, if they paid for the gas in the first place." The swim instructor replied, finding it equally ridiculous as any of her companions found the crime. It had befuddled Aimee as she tried to consider a motive to have a simple theft of a smoothie be so planned out as if they were robbing a bank.

Soon, some of her friends--Trip and Marcus-- had brought up the issue of the police doing nothing, and the possibility that they might be even in with the bandits, thugs and gangs that plagued Long Beach like a disease. Such an issue was likely to stir controversy with Aimee, whose brother was a police officer, and she was sure that Jake was doing his best to protect the good people of Long Beach. Jake had even gone to extensive lengths to protect Aimee, forcing her to learn self-defense and carry around a pair of hand cuffs and a stun gun for his little sister's own safety. Still, regardless, Jake was only one man, and there was only so much he could do. Something had to change, or else Long Beach would continue to rot as a hub of criminal activity.

Adding to the conversation, Alan brought up the recent statistics of Long Beach's crime rate on his laptop. It was saddening to see that the crime rate had exploded--quadrupling over the course of two years--and the police soon became short-handed as a result. Jake was always on call, reporting to dozens of claims of criminal activity, and returned every day home to the Holland residence with an exhausted appearance clouding his once cheerful outlook. Yet, despite everything Jake stood for, it was often the citizens of Long Beach that suffered. Alan spoke that he may have to move away in regards for his own safety, which many former natives did. As crime continued to rise, many left the city in search of a better place, leaving their former lives in Long Beach as they moved to different cities and towns.

"I hope that it doesn't come to it, Alan." Aimee replied, attempting to keep some sort of positive view on the gloomy conversation. Nonetheless, Alan had truth to his words. Alvina's friend dropped out from a potential education after being sexually harassed, Trip saw a woman be assaulted and mugged in broad daylight, and even Marcus' father had been shot by some thugs. It hadn't been long since Aimee had a brand new surfboard stolen right under her nose as well. She had set it against the lifeguard shack to speak with a mother and her child looking for guidance about the beach, and when Aimee had turned around, her surfboard was nowhere to be found. There were many reasons to fear for your life or your belongings in Long Beach, even if you were alone or in a crowd. If only things would change, and for the better.

---

After Ally recalled her story, she listened to her friends' responses. Each of them had their own tale to tell regarding the excessive crime rate in the city. Marcus compared the crime of the smoothie snatcher to a GTA Heist, which made her chuckle. His story then moved onto his recently passed father, and his struggle with running the shop. "I'm sorry, Marcus," she said, just like she had said a million times before, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. It wasn't hard to see he was holding back tears as he consumed all of the fries. She gave his shoulder a squeeze, as she now felt like an idiot for bringing the smoothie up. He had lost so much more in the recent violence, what right did she have to complain over a smoothie?

Ally then listened to Trip's story about a purse snatcher, and slowly shook her head. A lot of the crimes mentioned were petty, but they still affected people. Ally laughed at Trip's attempt to make his cup of coffee. "You call that a shot? Watch this!" The young woman picked up her own empty cup and threw it at the trash. It would've made it, if the trash can was three feet to the left. She quickly popped up from her chair and threw her cup away, teasingly nudging Trip to the side as they crossed paths.

As Ally walked back, she caught Alvina's story. She scoffed, hearing the pointless action of breaking into a car just to steal twenty bucks. "I'm just glad they didn't take your car." Many people knew that if their cars were stolen in this city, there would be little chance in ever getting it back.

After Alvina's story, Alan pulled up information on crime rates and revealed them to the group. Although they highly dissatisfied Ally, she wasn't surprised at all by the results. Everyone here was a victim of crime in one way or another. Actually, the woman was more surprised that it didn't raise any higher than that. Then again, the city had many years to expand and grow.

At Alan's mention of a lost life, Ally looked down at her hands and thought again of Marcus's dad. She couldn't even imagine her father passing and they didn't even live together. What exactly was Marcus feeling?

"I hope it doesn't either," Ally agreed with Aimee. She looked at her friends and thought about losing one of them. The thought nearly brought tears to her eyes. The young woman looked away and thought on Alan's words.

"Someone needs to punish them," Ally said, returning her gaze to her friend's, "Or maybe not punish, so much as stop this. I wish... I wish we could have super powers or something. Then we could stop crime much better than these cops."

Zoey pushed the buttons on the screen, typing in her pin for the thousandth time, signing out for the day. She was in a hurry. By her time, she was 15 minutes late already. There wasn't a moment to change out of the apron and green shirt that Joann's had provided.

"Shit" she muttered under her breath as she pulled her messenger bag out of her locker. It had patches on it from random youtube personalities she had been following for the past years. Her favorite was BigTimeTrouble, a vlogger from Long Beach, she had even met him once on the pier.

She took steps to leave the break-room, but was stopped by a familiar voice "Zoey, I need to talk to you for a second." She recognized the voice as Dan, her supervisor, mid 20's, greased up hair, and a real ass hole.

"I noticed you were distracted today, you can't keep coming into work with your head in the clouds. I really don't want to lay you off, I know you and your family needs this."

Zoey bit her tongue again and looked at her feet. "I'm sorry Dan, I'll try to do better next time."

"There's no try about it Zoey," he shot back "Listen, some of us from work are going out tonight. You should come, make some friends, learn to enjoy it here."

"Sorry, I have plans," she said motioning her body toward the door and walking out. She could hear Dan chuckle behind her saying "You're loss I guess."

Damn now she was 20 minutes late.

The food court wasn't a long walk from Joann's, and it wasn't long before she saw her friends huddled around the usual table. Ally seemed to be in the middle of talking to the group "I wish we could have super powers or something. Then we could stop crime much better than these cops."

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." she said to the group as she took a seat. Nobody seemed to be too peeved, but it was clear that she had missed something fairly important. She looked at Ally "I think anyone could do better than the police honestly." But, they all knew how she felt about them. Even before her dad was killed, they had only caused her trouble. Her skin was just a shade too dark for them, maybe that thought wasn't fair, but it was her experience. For a family that didn't break any laws, they had run into more trouble than any of her white friends growing up.

Something about what Ally said set Marcus off. "Now hold on, who said that you need superpowers to fight crime? I mean there are a bunch of examples of average people who fight crime without having powers. There's heroes like Batman, Daredevil, Ironman, Green Arrow, Hawkeye, Black Widow and that's just to name a few. Look I know these are all comic book characters but if there's one thing I've learned from my years of reading comics it's that there are all sorts of practical ways you can use to fight crime."

Marcus rubbed his face frantically, a habit of his for when he got excited. "Like for instance, Ally..." He said pointing two fingers at her. "...you have been fighting for years, ever since I've known you. You could easily kick the ass of most grown men I know, including my own! Or even you Alan, you're a fucking genius! You're a brilliant technological and logical thinker, even the police would love to have somebody like you."

He stood up at the table now, unable to control his excitement. He then turned his attention toward Aimee. "And even you know martial arts, not mention your training in first aid and CPR." Then he looked at Alvina. "You're an incredible gymnast who can perform physical acts that make my back hurt when I watch them, and you ALSO know how to fight. Let's not forget Trip here, who could probably beat all of us up at once!" He just noticed that Zoey was sitting down at the table as well, she must have showed up while Marcus busy fuming. "Then there's Zoey, who's a fantastic athlete! Heck even I know how handle a weapon and kick a little bit of butt!"

Marcus was chewing on his lip now, having worked himself up in a frenzy. He took a moment to breathe and calm down before he spoke again. "Look guys, we've all seen Spiderman. Now what's Uncle Ben's famous line before he dies?" The question was of course rhetorical as he planned on answering it himself. "With great power comes great responsibility! But see the thing people don't get about that line is that we all have great power. We all have the ability to do incredible things and make a difference in our community!" He looked around at all of his friends, hoping some of what he was saying was registering with them. "I just know that if I have to see another person I love get gunned down because of the crime in this city, knowing that ALL I DID was sit at home and watch Naruto and play FUCKING video games, I won't be able to sleep at night." Marcus buried his head in hands, his rant had left him feeling drained. He felt so badly like crying.

Zoey looked at Marcus with his head in his hands. She had always been jealous of how he could wear his heart on his sleeve. They had both lost a father recently, and she understood his feelings. Zoey remembered Marcus' Pop, always helping customers at the shop, he had a certain air about him that made everyone comfortable, that made the comic shop a second home. His dad had introduced her to some of her favorite books Lumberjanes, Rat Queens, freaking Saga. He was a cool guy, if not for him she wouldn't have met Marcus or everyone else here either. She'd be alone.

Now he was gone, just like Papá. A victim of this city, no, of it's criminals. At least Zoey's family had got a life insurance claim...Marcus' was left with a shop, that needed attention and the constant reminder of his dad.

"He's right." she muttered to the group, "If we all think about it...this city is our home, it might have taken things from us. But, I grew up here. I remember when I could walk through the pier, and didn't have to worry about being abducted or raped...or killed by some thug" she took a deep breath and continued "I want my brother and sister to have the same type of childhood I did, I want my family, and you guys to be safe. Nobody else is going to do it..."

Zoey could feel her face turning red as she spoke. She knew she sounded ridiculous, but she wasn't the only one, and she wasn't going to leave Marcus hanging.

Ally continued to speak of the respite that all her friends--no, all of Long Beach--wanted from the criminals and thugs that prowled the streets. Yet, her words were like kindle to the fire that Marcus was, his excitement resulting in lavish compliments towards his companions' qualities, but then it had clicked for Aimee. Is he suggesting that we take our stand? Aimee thought, listening to Marcus rant about how even it was possible for even those without superpowers to rise up, as long as they believed in themselves. Each fiery word was like a general's speech to his men, rousing them for battle and filling them with courage and bravery, and while Marcus was no war hero, his rant was working.

Standing from her seat, Aimee walked around the table and over to where Marcus was, who now had his face in his hands to hide the fact that he was about to cry. Wrapping an arm around Marcus' shoulder, Aimee looked on towards their friends. "Admittedly, Marcus is right. Everyone--well, not the criminals--wants something to be done, but hardly anyone tries to fight back. If we want change, why do we continue to mope instead of fixing the problem?" Aimee explained, watching their expression to see how each of them would react. The swim instructor might have been asking the impossible, but if anyone had the power to change the future, it was them.

Out of all those who were sitting or standing around the table, Zoey was quick to understand what Marcus was explaining alongside Aimee. "It may sound outright insane, and it may sound impossible, but if we unite together, we might just be able to change it into possibility--no, reality." Aimee continued to explain, nodding at Zoey as she spoke of her support to Marcus' ideals. Each and everyone of them wanted Long Beach to be a better place for their families and themselves. All it needed was a little motivation and effort to do the city right.

---

@1Hawkeyes@candlelitcraft@Conscripts@Poi@Slingshot@Fury Panda

Trip was quiet as the others vented. He'd been touched by the rising violence in the city, same as the rest of them, going all the way back to when his own father had been killed seven years ago. As much as he would sometimes love to head out into the night to beat the life out of the gutless thugs that ruled the city, he also liked the idea of living a long healthy life.

"I think we should take a moment and not bury the lede" he began carefully, once the talk ended. "Sure, we all have our ways of defending ourselves. If it came to it, each of us could handle our business in that regard, but those guys out there have taken on much worse than us. They have guns, knives, and most importantly, a vicious streak a mile long. Screw with the wrong guy, they won't hesitate to put you down."

@Crossfire@Conscripts
Zoey's blood turned to ice. If anybody knew about this stuff it was Trip. He was a trained boxer, he was going to be an MMA fighter. He was trained to fight, and he knew the reality of the danger, I'm sure he had seen all types of bad guys at and around his gym...But, there had to be something they could do, that well of passion returned.

"Maybe...we could train. At your gym, you could teach us...and...and...we could start small. Like little things maybe...we could be smart about it." she stopped to breath and attempt to stop from trembling, it could still be heard in her voice though. "Alan can run the numbers, and we only do what we're capable of. Maybe."

Ally listened to Marcus's words smiling a bit at his compliments of her fighting. He continued on to talk about the others and their skills. Basically everyone here could defend themselves, there was no question about that. Zoey agreed with Marcus, that if they didn't do something, who would? Aimee cautiously jumped on board too, stating their unity could make them an actual changing force in crime.

With each new word, the idea of becoming a vigilante became increasingly attractive. Now that she thought about it, she did have that spandex body suit she wore for Halloween a couple times, posing as her "own hero." That would give her full movement and conceal her identity well. Her heart raced as she thought of actually making her fantasy a reality.

Then Trip began to speak, bringing her mind back into reality. These weren't comic books. Although she had extremely minor training in disarming someone, who was to say she would have the time before they pulled the trigger? Ally sighed, thinking, and finally spoke aloud. "Then we have to sneak up on them, right? Get them before they get us. Plus we can fortify our costumes with Kevlar. I mean, it won't help at blank range, but..." she trailed off, unsure if she wanted to continue with her next words. Eventually she decided to.

"Look, I wanted to be a cop for a while, but seeing them go down made me lose faith, so I switched to Sports Medicine as a career. You guys know this, but the thing is I've mentally prepared myself to lay down my life for others. That's what a good cop- a good human is willing to do." She looked at her three friends that had lost their fathers. Ally hadn't had contact with her mother in years, and her father was her Superman. Imagining him gone brought tears to her eyes. She wiped them away quickly, her passion now growing as she spoke again. "If I can lay down my life to give someone else theirs, that will be okay. That's a risk I'm willing to take. Trip is right, there are people who won't hesitate to take us, or to track us and take our loved ones. This isn't a game. We have to be willing to put down our lives for strangers. If you guys are willing then... Then we're doing this."

Her heart swelled as she reached up and gripped her Wonder Woman necklace. Was this what her idol would do? Would she encourage her friends to join her in a dangerous battle like this? Would she encourage them to back down? Ally wasn't sure, but she knew her friends needed to understand this won't be a game, and was glad Trip brought up his point.

Alvina listened to them, slowly becoming more convinced. She honestly wasn't even thinking about the danger of the idea, she was just trying to figure out how to work her schedule around it. She thought it sounded really fun, and she wanted to help people. She especially wanted to protect the young girls who were constantly harassed and attacked by men on the streets. This crime had been one that bothered her the most out of petty crimes, and she had frequently been in similar situations. If she could help a girl avoid that, she didn't care how dangerous it was.

"I think it sounds like fun. We're capable of this. Let's face it, we're all pretty fricking cool, and we can all do such amazing things. We should use that to help other people!" She smiled and reached over to give Ally's hand a squeeze.

"Not to mention, it's gonna be so cool to think up our hero aliases. How cool would it be to have a name that strikes fear into the hearts of the criminals of Long Beach?" Her smile grew and she reflected on some of her favorite super hero movies. She had always wanted to be like them, but it had never occurred to her that this was something that could really happen. She was excited for the adventure.

@1Hawkeyes@Fury Panda@candlelitcraft@Poi@Slingshot@Conscripts

"I'd still feel really uneasy about it all. If any of you guys ever got hurt... or worse, then that's on me, for being a bad teacher. I just..."

He broke off, feeling really shitty about being the lone naysayer. With everyone looking at him, and given the gravity of the situation, words failed him. There was no witty quote or comedic reference to get him out of this one.

"Listen, I get it, believe me. The cops in this town.." he stopped, looking apologetically at Aimee "..most of the cops in this town don't care, or they're dirty. I get the appeal of taking matters into our own hands, but at the end of the day I don't want to see you guys get hurt. I don't want to be responsible for that.... I don't want to bury anyone else."

'Is that really the time? Damn it' Trip thought, catching sight of the old clock across the way. He pushed his chair back and leaned over to grab his backpack stowed under the table.
"Can I think about it, and let you all know later? I've gotta get going, I'm teaching a few classes today, don't wanna be late."

---

As Marcus suggested the idea of becoming the bounty hunter, the self-proclaimed hero of justice of Long Beach who helped, if not taking over the role of, the police to keep the area secured, Alan received this with mixed emotions, like the rest of his friends. A part of him was happy that within these best friends were hearts of justice. But parts of Alan were also seriously concerned, like Trip. While being a hero may appear cool and badass, it was a serious job. Let's all be honest, we don't have super powers, just normal individuals who were better at normal people at thinking, for Alan's case, and fighting, for the rest of his friend's cases. We weren't well equipped, probably only capable of affording a few pistols at best. The police were more equipped, with handcuffs, tasers, cars and in extreme cases, assault rifles and other powerful arsenals and still uncapable of handling with the criminals, not to mention us. And this wasn't a game. You mess up, you die. Trip, Zoey and Marcus had learnt it the hard way. He wouldn't want to see anyone suffering the same fate.

"Now, now." Seeing how the conversation was turning in two opposite direction, Alan believed he must make his opinions clear. "Trip has a point. We should not take this suggestion lightly. It's dangerous, no matter how you see it. If you mess up, you'll pay the price."

Realizing that he was being a bit negative, Alan then tried to make the atmosphere lighter

"But that doesn't mean we should abandon the idea. I mean, it's great to see you guys ready to defend Long Beach, our home since childhood. I would be sad if I have to leave this place. I am willing to join you guys in your endeavour, but if you really are going to do this, there will be a lot of things we should put under consideration. I'll try to make things easier for you, but we should think about it."

Ally and Alvina were so sure of themselves. They had always been, since she met them both. Within minutes they had decided what they wanted, and were going to do it, even if everyone else decided not to. Zoey wished she had that much fortitude.

"I've gotta get going, I'm teaching a few classes today, don't wanna be late." Trip said as he got up to leave. He seemed upset, Zoey was pretty sure she had overstepped, she didn't mean to put more burden on him. But, in truth, if this was happening, she couldn't imagine doing it without him. She pulled out her phone and started to write a text to Trip,(Sorry about the name drop) but stopped as Alan began to speak.

It sounded like he was interested in joining, even if his words were more than a little scary. It would be important, there wasn't anyone else at this table with his skills on computers, and they were going to need every advantage if they were going to do this without getting hurt, arrested...or worse.

Zoey looked over at Marcus, she wondered if he had known how each of his friends would respond. Beneath his hyper exterior lived a thoughtful guy, someone who cared about everyone, even the people in his comics. For a minute she wondered if he cared about her more, but she pushed the thought back like she had since last year.

Ally squeezed Alvina's hand back, happy to have support from her. She listened to the other woman's words carefully and laughed, "Yeah, striking fear might sound cool, but I want to focus on spreading hope. When people zee us standing up, maybe they'll stand up too.

Trip spoke his disapproval again, and she didn't blame him. Ally was shocked of all people, Trip wasn't on board. He had amazing fighting skills, and losing that was an extreme loss to the team. Then again, as he left he mentioned he would think about it and give an answer later on. Ally appreciated this.

Alan spoke, further supporting Trip, in a sense. He encouraged them to not only think of the pros, but the cons as well. Ally appreciated this as well. He showed they weren't some random group of teens going out to get into something they had no idea about.

"Thanks Alan, I'm glad you're on board with this too," Ally said. Alan was incredibly smart, and though Ally considered herself smarter than the average beat, she knew that Alan blew her out of the waters. She knew he wasn't a huge fighter, but maybe he could be their Oracle? She shook her head. She was thinking too far ahead.

Ally looked over to Zoey, who hadn't spoken since Trip left. "If Trip can't teach you, I will," Ally offered, "I know he's a way better teacher than me, but if you want some sort of teaching, I can help you." She looked at the rest of her friends and said, voice clear and strong, "If anyone here isn't confident with their fighting skills and Trip can't teach you, I will. We can't do this if we don't know how to defend ourselves."