The Vanguards of Justice (CasualVelociraptor x maxxwrektum x Unscripted x Vidar)

[CasualVelociraptor]

Eastern Bay, Eastern United States Unified Combatant Command, United States, Year 20XX

10 Years After the Great Aurora Burst & The Metahuman War​

Koichi Takahashi smiled warmly that evening at all his executives on his way to the penthouse office at the top of the world’s tallest building, Phalanx Tower. That was the headquarters of Phalanx Defense Systems, a crown jewel of the Takahashi Zaibatsu ever since he’d acquired it in a bankruptcy sale shortly after the end of the Metahuman War and made it the largest private security company in the world. Once he got inside, though, the happy facade fell away into a stone-faced gloom, and not even the giant zen garden his drone was raking for him could put his mind at ease.

He’d gotten sloppy in his old age by allowing his granddaughter Alexa’s absence to go unnoticed over the weekend. After all, she’d requested him to “call off the dogs” because she was having “a girlfriend” over all weekend, and he’d tried to respect her wishes and privacy this time, knowing that at least she’d be staying in her apartment.

Once Phalanx Special Forces agents discovered it was trashed on Monday morning, however, all bets were off. Alexa’s social media accounts had been mysteriously deleted and her bank accounts cleaned out, but witnesses had claimed to see a woman in a dark hoodie with a shock of white hair enter her apartment through the window on Saturday. With that information, he knew who had seduced and then likely kidnapped his little mochi cake.

The Crow had been the bane of his existence for a number of years. Whether she was a meta or not was impossible to say, but entire teams of his finest heavily armed commandoes said she certainly fought like one. She was one of the few vigilantes who had not either been brought to heel by the world’s governments (and contractors such as Phalanx) or terminated.

He didn’t like to handle metas for any assignment, preferring that his underlings do so, but he needed to quietly neutralize the Crow once and for all, or it would be all over the news that the CEO of the most powerful defense contractor couldn’t even protect his own granddaughter from a ghost, and then he would be ruined. Plus, some of his meta employees had mysteriously gone missing. And so he’d personally called the one known as Newton out of retirement to oversee this operation, and their newest star player, Sunflower. She was green, but her spate of successes had been PR gold for Phalanx, and defeating the Crow and saving Alexa would make for a “viral moment” on ClipTime. Their mission was to rescue Alexa, capture Crow alive, then terminate her once she told them where the Phalanx “heroes” she’d likely killed were buried.

“They’re late,” he growled while pounding the table with one wrinkled fist.

“My sensors indicate that the both of them are already in the private elevator, ten floors below us and closing,” the drone warbled.

“The longer they waste my time, the less time they have to find Alexa. If they do so again, they will not be working anywhere!”

“Preparing two severance forms for HR in the event of future tardiness in your presence, Mr. Takahashi.”

“Good,” Koichi smirked. He liked this little drone. At least it never disobeyed.

With metas, one could never really be sure.

*****

Meanwhile, three hundred feet below the harbor in an abandoned sea level observation facility, Crow rose from her nap that had capped off a tough afternoon of cleaning the docks of crime followed by an amazing marathon of sex, and smiled as she observed the naked Japanese woman gently breathing next to her.

For the past week, they’d been lying low here, after deciding to run away together last weekend. Or at least, run away as much as Shiloh could from her chosen profession. Which was free running, gliding, grappling, blasting (with nonlethal iron, stun, and pepper balls fed into a modified double-barreled break-action shotgun that was now automatic) and improvising her way through the fascist jackboots that called themselves private security but essentially usurped Eastern Bay PD. She opposed them, as well as the usual criminals and an increasing dance card of bizarre meta villains determined to put her in the ground, every day and every night in defense of what remained of American freedoms in her city. Every day pushing her body and mind to the limits as a result to keep up in the arms race of justice, never allowing herself more than a few hours of sleep in her aquatic lair.

But then came a chance encounter three months ago with the lithe slip of a woman (who just happened to be the granddaughter of one of her biggest archenemies, no big deal!). As Shiloh put her would-be mugger in the hospital and they laughed at her bodyguards shivering from his ice blasts, Shiloh realized that life had finally given her someone to fight for. To breathe alongside. To cry with. To confide her secret identity in, which she had never done before.

Crow, usually such a brilliant tactical planner, hadn’t thought much farther than how to get Alexa here and make it look like a kidnapping…perhaps Primal, the one meta she could trust (though not with her identity), would help her figure it out. But for now, he had turned himself into a German shepherd and was being the sleepiest boy after, so Shiloh started to get changed into her costume, planning to go out on patrol just as it was getting dark and scanning the horizon and her “borrowed” police radio for crimes or for any news that Phalanx was sending someone more competent than their rent-a-cops.

More dangerous.

She'd consult with him on their next move if they weren't getting shot at.

But then a delicate right hand reached out for her rough-hewn left, and Alexa mumbled, “Shyyy…come back to bed.”

“Baby, I’m getting us dinner again.”

That wasn’t a total lie, since Shiloh usually did bring back food from any patrol, day or night. But for one thing, Alexa knew that meant Shiloh would be getting herself in trouble again, so there was no need to mention it. For another, her and Primal liked to grab hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches, and similar portable foods that could be eaten with one hand and stored in their backpacks while on the run, and Alexa was getting sick of them.

“You can turn yourself into a hot dog again if you want,” Alexa chuckled since she worried that her lover was eating too much junk food, “but could you bring me some gyoza? You know, from the place on 45th…what’s the name?”

“I know what you mean,” Shiloh smirked. Though she couldn’t recall the name either, that had been where they’d had their first date. The owner had cleared the place out for the two of them and kept the lights dark, since he was on good terms with Crow after she had broken the local Irish mafia’s protection racket over him.

“Well, perhaps I can eat something else while I wait,” Alexa grinned as she put her bathrobe on with her back conspicuously turned to her woman, got up, and traced the scars all over Shiloh’s bare abdomen, knowing the sight of her like this was liable to make her ravenous ghost shunt the robe off before heading into the shower. Counting on it, even.

“Please let this be how I die,” Shiloh chuckled while the two women cleaned themselves up. Or made each other dirtier, depending on how one looked at it.

After Alexa’s skilled tongue sent her to paradise and vice versa under the heated and filtered seawater of the shower, Shiloh chuckled as she finished putting on the Crow disguise, “Why don’t you go see if my partner in (fighting) crime needs his walkies? Tell him I’ll be back later, and to guard you with his life.”

Alexa put on actual clothes this time and then knocked on Primal’s door, while Crow headed for the elevator to the hidden entrance by the docks, energized and ready for the night while listening to one of her favorite songs- Hold Tight by Henry Parsley and Simon James.

 

[Unscripted]

To classify Sunflower as a prospective giant of the hero industry was a gross understatement. Blessed with the ability of absorbing sunlight to generate flames from her own sweat and melanin, Juniper Silva - or “Juno”, as she would prefer to be called - had steamrolled through every challenge thrown her way. She was not known as a prizefighter for no reason, after all.

And yet, she had been christened Sunflower against her will. With the upbringing she had had, it did not sit well to be named after a flower. It made her feel as if she was nothing but a glammed up doll for an agency that enjoyed flaunting her as a token, rather than as a combattant.

True, with a sculpted physique that greatly enhanced the dark-mocha color of her skin and with her pale white hair, she was bound to stand out as a specimen. The tight fabric of her green and gold uniform served as a reminder of that, even if most of her body was completely concealed. She was made to be marketable and she earned the attention with displays of power and with confidence to boot.

Yet, this case was new for her. So new, in fact, that she had been completely caught off guard when told she would be working with a veteran, fresh out of retirement. Moreover, she had not quite been expected to hunt anyone other than a hostile enemy of Phallanx per se, so discomfort was inevitable.

Juno had not spoken to Newton when they first crossed paths, opting to be quiet until they moved away from the watchful eye of public scrutiny.

Once inside the elevator, the well-built woman made herself comfortable, folding her arms over chest and resting her back against the cold surface, taking a good look at her new acquaintance. Cocking her right eyebrow upwards, she hummed to herself briefly, thinking if she should break the ice in any way, shape or form, or if she should just follow protocol and let their employer handle the PR side of things.

It did not take long for Juno to accept that she was not going to be able to keep her mouth shut for too long, seeing how she immediately started talking when the doors closed and left her and Newton alone to their own devices for just a moment.

“You look good. Been working out?” Though not exactly sincere, she figured the playful jab would be the best way to break the ice, even if she did not smile when teasing her acquaintance. It was best for her to simply move the chit-chat along before they had to get down to business. “Gotta give you props for your timing. Few people make a comeback in a case like this.”

Shrugging, she looked up, her nose scrunching as she felt the knot in her stomach tighten at the prospect of what was to come.​

 

[Vidar]

Allan Pierce aka Primal was not a born hero, but he had become one over the years. His power lacked subtly sometimes, or maybe that was just him as a person who usually chose animals more beastly. That's actually how he hqad earned his name, he usually turned into a bear, and fought against the villains he had fought. Honestly he had thought himself a very minor hero for many years, and even now he was wondering if he eventually got in over his head. How power was turning into animals, he didn't have something flashy and showy. It was always something on his mind as of late.

When he joined up with Siloh he never expected his life to be so...hectic. She was wicked smart, something he needed in a partner. She didn't really open up to him, which worked out fine for him, as he never fully opened up to her. He was always willing to talk about his time as a hero, but never delved into anything else.

Everything had been mostly fine, until this latest mess up. It sounded like an easy job, but now he was trapped in an underground sewer basically. As if that wasn't bad enough, his senses were usually always heightened, as he stayed in a dog form to keep a look out. His hearing and his nose were much more sensitive now, in this form. No matter where he went, even in human for it was almost like he couldn't excape the the relationship between the two women he was currently with. He was just glad they never had the brilliant idea to invite him to sleep on the end of their bed.

When morning came he groaned as he was awakened by the sounds of someone walking in the hallway. Again he was in his dog for, specifically, a german shepherd. He walked to the door, turning into a huamn to turn the knob, before goign back to his dog form before looking up at her. Alexa, he recognized her as she was walking down the hall. He pushed the door open, and then walked out. In his animal forms he could still talk luckily. "Morning."he said simply, his voice a smooth baratone.