A lot of things happened in pretty rapid succession and she honestly got more than a bit lost. Three people were now in Zek's dumpster, Zek *rescinded* his offer of food which, well, honestly how rude of him, and then the helmeted one made a swift exit via glittery light ball.

Juniper crossed her arms and half turned her back on the stooges in the trash can, trying to pay attention to what the obvious adults of the group were saying.

L shouted sea.

"I'll take sea." Juniper spoke over her.

Samurai armor person and the one who had floated down chose land and took off. Juniper contemplated waving farewell to either of the trash bandits but ultimately was too petty to do so. She sprinted off without a word, heading in the direction of the harbor Ninja Warrior had pointed out.


It took a little bit, but Juni was fast on her feet with all of her weight gone. She ultimately arrived just after shots were fired and freaked out for just a second, diving behind some stacked up harbor crates by a building before anyone spotted her.

What were they firing at?

"Did we get him?"

"I dunno, keep your guard up and try and get a bead on him again.... what was with that crazy helmet?"

...helmet?

The guy Zek had yeeted off into the sky came to mind. Oh. Had he been yeeted all the way over here? Ah @#$%.

Taking a breath to calm herself, she hyped herself up a bit and then came sprinting out from behind her hidey-crates. The guy closest to her had his back in her direction, and with her feet bare and weight gone she barely made any noise.

She crashed into him from behind fully solid, knocked him over, and made a grab for his gun.

It slid out of his hand like it was buttered thanks to her power, and she phased it into several chunks and a handful of small screws before his very eyes.

The other guy reacted immediately, firing at her, but the bullets passed harmlessly through.

Oh. So that was the mission? Zek shrugged. Three groups. Three targets. Three objectives. Three blind mice. Wait, nah, that wasn’t right. He tapped the side of his head to focus. Okay, he could do this.

And suddenly the alley was practically cleared out. Juniper ran off to the water, Red Rover and Cloaked Wonder seemed like they were heading off in the direction of when the fashion victim had said the trucks or vans were, which just left Zek and L in his dumpster and assigned to the drone by default.

Zek shrugged. How hard could it be to knock a single drone out of the sky? Besides, he and L looked amazing. After they saved the day, Zek was totally going to track Juniper down so she could give him an L a photoshoot. Zek was already preparing which duck faces to use.

“Well, looks like it’s just you and me,” the taller trash bandit said to the shorter one. He cracked his neck (which was really impressive and took about twice the time to do so when compared to regular people) and set his cheese puffs on his mattress. Then he dropped a golden light on it and the dumpster and all of the stuff in it vanished. Zek bent his legs slightly as his feet hit the asphalt under where the dumpster had been.

“Think we should get started?” he said to his mini-me. If you listened you could hear the sounds of gunshots in the distance, way more of them than normal. His face fell. “Awww, I’ll bet Juniper is already beating up all the people at the docks. C’mon, we gotta beat her score!” And then he looked at his partner in crime’s legs. He frowned. “Or maybe I should do the running. Here, hold this,” he said as he pushed a yellow ball at L.

L's cheeks poofed up as she was spoken over, and she ran off to follow Zek's new pokemon to the docks. She crossed her hands and huffed. What was she doing getting all direct and business like? She was her plus 1! As she wandered off, the other two skittered as well.

That just left her and... Her eyes drifted to her fellow snappily dressed glamster. Three rapid blinks flapped out as he cracked his crazy bendy straw of a neck. They did look pretty baller. And their job didn't exactly sound... hard. So... fun, right?

The Dumpster disappeared, and L plopped down to her feet, expecting the change in scenery due to a slightly better understanding of Blupac's power. "Taterthot's gotta head start, sure, but we've already got points for style!" She walked forward to retrieve her guns, neatly ducking his held out attempt to capture her. "Pshh! I got a car! We're goin in style, Capische?!" Grasping the two small weapons, she turned a started walking toward the giant, bright pink SUV parked around the corner.

"Wait, do you wanna drive, or should I?" He pulled out a Howdy Kitten Keychain with far too many keys on it, looking to catch sight of him again.

"Did we get him?"

"I dunno, keep your guard up and try and get a bead on him again.... what was with that crazy helmet?"

Juniper stopped, and calmed herself. Focusing on her breathing. Hyping herself up. Probably sounded a bit like ‘okay juniper! You can do this! You’re cool! You’re number one! Yeaaaah!’ The side effect of this self inspiration? She didn’t hear the follow up answer to one man’s question. Or the follow up statement.

“You fool!” Thing 1 said to thing 2. “Haven’t you ever heard of Cheshire? He goes around the city, fighting muggers n crap.”

Thing 2 gasped. “Cheshire?! Isn’t that the guy who cuts off peoples’ faces?!”

“No....” Thing 1 eyed him. “That is... someone else. Some guy in white.”

“Moon—“ He got cut off as something. Some body. Crashed into him from behind. “Ah crap!!” He shouted as he fell. As he fell, he almost fired off a wild shot into the ground. His hand closed. If those fingers had been on the trigger, he’d have released some frantic panic fire by mistake. Luckily for everyone involved, Thing 1 had exercised excellent trigger discipline. So the boat did not get shot. Nor anyone else. Then, He lost the gun. Which made him sad.

As the gun got phased right out of his grasp, a little sound escaped him. A very disappointed “a-aww.” Followed shortly by a “Aw, crap” as the gun went bye bye. Chunkified by his mysterious assailant. He still had some payments on that...

What would he say to Gary?!

Thing 2 eyed the person atop his friend. A mutant. From his vantage, it appeared as if she had grabbed the man’s gun and disintegrated it with a touch. Thing 1 was busy trying to paw at the remnants of his weapon. And the woman? She was within range. On top of his friend, sure. But he was certain she had already given away the game by showing her hand. Her power. She would not be able to stop this.

Thing 2 shot at the woman. And watched as the bullets went right through her, into his friend.

Thing 1’s focus drifted away from the remnants of his gun, like smoke floating out of a smokestack. Towards a light at the end of a long tunnel. And he thought no more.

“Oh.” Thing 2 said. For extra emphasis, he added. “Oh, shit.”

And then, someone flew out of darkness to kick him in the face. Down, he went. Cheshire landed from his flying jump kick, turned towards Juniper, and dusted himself off. He was still soggy. Which lessened the cool factor, slightly.

The helmet grinned at her manically, tongue lolling out from the jagged smile.

“Well. Guess that’s two grunts down and more grunting to go.” He noted wryly. “I missed the mission briefing. I take it these are some of the bad people Crimson samurai lady wanted us to whomp?”

Surely, more baddies would be appearing shortly. But for the moment, they had a second. The calm before the storm.

Shots fired! She phased herself, everything except a few toes. Goon number one who she had tackled wasn't so lucky and three holes suddenly appeared in him, and then started leaking red, and she panicked.

"AHH@$#%STOPWHY@#$%@!"

There was no saving goon #1, not that she would have, but really how stupid was his buddy to have-

SMACRACK

A foot sailed out of the dark and got him right in the face. Goon #2 crumbled, and sailed off the edge of the side of the boat and into the water below.

And then it was just two. Her and crazy helmet dude with a killer kick.

She shuffled a few steps away from the body of goon #1 and just... put that out of her mind for now.

"Oh hey! You ended up here, huh? Zek sure yeeted you pretty far." Her hands flapped at her sides for a moment, unsure about what to do. She was pretty sure she had heard about the helmeted vigilante from Xavier.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Docks. Drugs N stuff. Gotta stop em before they, like... take over the city or something."

She felt oddly underdressed next to someone who was decked out in like, an actual costume and stuff. Just standing around like a putz in a hoodie and yoga pants. Waaay less cool.

Wait, was that seaweed on his shoulder?

She blinked. "Armor lady didn't really explain much after that. Or at least nothing I stuck around to hear." She shrugged and looked at one of the boxes the goons had been moving around.

".... How are we supposed to get rid of a bunch of drugs, anyway?"

L did not accept his ball. It vanished and Zek shrugged. Usually most people just took stuff when he pushed it at them. He used to get rid of his trash in middle and high school like that all the time. Just tell someone “hold this” and they automatically took it without realizing they now had their hands full of your garbage. And Birdcat still never seemed to catch on when Zek did it to him with one of his balls.

Oh well. Besides, L had a way better idea that didn’t involve him running. It involved style. “I like the way you think!” he said in approval as he watched Gangster Girl grab her guns and go. Zek himself sashayed after her and honestly, he had to admit that she’d outdone him there.

“Awww yeahhhhh,” Zek cried with open glee. “Now this is the life!” It was so big! So shiny! So pink! It practically glowed in the dingy glow of the streetlights!

“You go ahead and drive,” he said as he charged over to the passenger side. There he dropped a ball on the ground and after the duffle bag flashed into existence, he reached down and grabbed something out of it before vanishing it again. He turned back to L with a child-like grin on his face. “I call shotgun!” he said as he cocked his shotgun. Turns out he’d really made the right decision to go to that hunting/pool party not long ago - he still had a lot of the party favors they’d given him!

Besides, they couldn’t really match until they both had guns, right?

As soon as he could, he climbed on into the SUV and as he buckled up, he was rubbernecking all over the place and scouting it out. One of these days he’d have to consider getting one just like it. The only trick would be making sure the key was left inside it when he took it.

“Alright, let’s go chase down some drones!” he said as he played with the window, rolling it up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down.

Zek approved of Bowsette. Damn Straight, she was a gosh damn gem of a ride. "What can I say? I'm a bad b#$%^ with a bank account." Strike a bad ass gangster pose~ She was driving? Good! She liked to drive fast!

She skuttled to the driver side, grunting with effort as she climbed up into her booster seat, placing her feet onto the pedal extenders. It was clear this ride was custom as @#$%. She looked over and grinned widely as he produced a dangerous duffle and shucked a shotgun. "... The world is not prepared for our badassery."

The SUV was complete with a black leather interior, mini cooler, chamapaign bucket, and yes... there was a snack cubbie. Mama could eat what ever she wanted and not gain weight.

Zek loudly announced their quest, and L turned on the engine and revved it. "Yes... I know what we must do..."

---------------

"Uhhh, I'll get and extra order of onion rings... And... Um... Oh, Can we get one, no make that two, two ice cream cones... And a greasy taco bucket.... Uh, Did you want anything else?" What? They had to stop by Greasy King... How could they not stop by Greasy King? It was on the way.

Pulling up to the window to get their food, L watched as a drone carrying a package way too heavy for it started to putter past down the street. "huh... do we just... like... shoot at it?" She dug out her credit card and paid real quick. "Where do you think the duder guarding it is?"

They got their food, and L sped off, one hand grasping a small gun and the steering wheel at the same time, the other one digging through a bag of fast food for some fries.

>> Oh hey! You ended up here, huh? Zek sure yeeted you pretty far."

“Sure did.” He agreed.

>> "Oh, uh, yeah. Docks. Drugs N stuff. Gotta stop em before they, like... take over the city or something."

“Drugs, huh.”

How fun. Street level stuff was far easier than dead Santa or that one thing from dream space he’d tried to mess with.

He felt slightly impressed with juniper and her outfit. Just chilling in yoga pants and a hoodie while he was wearing body armor and a motorcycle helmet, like some overdressed putz. Waaaaay less cool than someone exuding confidence like her.

>> "Armor lady didn't really explain much after that. Or at least nothing I stuck around to hear." She said. Then added

>> ".... How are we supposed to get rid of a bunch of drugs, anyway?"

He glanced at the harbor. “Boston tea party. Er. New York crack party? The fish are radioactive already...”

Terrible, terrible idea. But it was one plan. She wasn’t suggesting they dispose of them in an illegal, illicit way? Was she? Because he had been a delivery boy often enough to know how that would go down.

He did not get much time to really slog out an idea. More thugs came up on the deck of the ship. Three of them this time. Strangely, one of them was in a pirate costume. Or at least, the bandanna on his head and the eyepatch really sold him on the idea.

Elliott took off in a running leap and swept the feet out from under that one guy. Then, he booted him off the boat.

Splish!

He turned and rushed the next guy, snapping out his two extending batons as he went.

"The fish are what?!" She absolutely believed him. Why wouldn't she? She immediately turned to try and see if there were any glowing fish in the water. "I thought that was just an Ohio thing..."

She didn't have much time to dwell on that, though, as they were suddenly joined by even more bad guys. Two stooges and a pirate, apparently. She wasn't familiar enough with pirate movies to make a joke, though.

Helmet dude leapt in all cool like right off the bat, and Juniper just stood there and watched him for a moment. He worked a lot different than X did... the giant blonde hero tended to go into things with a cheerful smile, depending on the bad guy, and just effortlessly bounce people around. It was cool, but not like... martial arts master cool. He took down one guy in... was that two moves? And suddenly they were down to two bad guys to deal with.

She might have gasped softly in nerdy fangirl glee when the batons appeared, and even more so when the guy he was going up against whipped out an expanding staff from nowhere.

"So coooool..."

Oh, er... she should probably help, right?

The last guy had some kind of rifle- it was hard to see what kind in the dark- but as luck would have it he'd jammed it somehow already. She scooted on over to him real quick, grabbed him by the pants and one jacket arm, and hefted his phased self over her head. He went sailing out over the water a moment later to join his buddy in the water with an audible splash.

Then she stood there awkwardly wondering what to do. She wasn't gonna barge into Helmet's fight, it was probably against Hero rules or something.

... Start throwing crates?

Start throwing crates!

She started phasing and chucking crates into the water.

“Yeah, I want the extra spicy chicken wings with molotov cocktail sauce!” Zek said, stretching his neck out just a few inches further than generally possible in order to better read the menu. “And some nachos, with extra guac. And does the barbecue platter come with a biscuit as well? No? Just sourdough bread and two sides? Okay, I’ll take baked beans and pop rocks. That’ll be it.”

Zek sat back in his chair, content. Until: “And some mozzarella sticks!” he shouted. Now he was content. “I’m done now,” he let everyone know. It has already been like two minutes since he’d eaten something and he was starving.

L drew his attention to the sky and away from the cookie he’d taken from one of his pockets. “I guess?” he shrugged. “What dude, though?” he said as he bit into his cookie. There was just a drone. Didn’t look like anyone was around it. Because it was a flying drone. Zek smashed the rest of his cookie into his mouth. He figured they had the easy job.

And then they got their food and it was the bestest thing to ever happen oh dead gods it looked and smelled and tasted amazing like I can’t even describe it mmmmmm!

“This looks and smells and tastes amazing, like I can’t even describe it! Mmmmmm!” Zek said as he almost inhaled a chili dog. He’d pulled out a tray and had started laying out their fast food feast, occasionally shuffling some of the stuff around so L would have easy access to a variety. He stuffed a cheeseburger in his mouth. “Mf ghnna ghha sghhhrt ‘tt naww,” he said.

He rolled his window down and just stuck the shotgun out one-handedly and loosely aimed it in the general direction of the drone. He pulled the trigger and with a massive bang the gun jumped out of his hand and went skittering across the road in their dust. The drone didn’t even swerve.

“....okay, so maybe this is trickier than I thought,” he said, chomping on a churro.

He made quick work of the remaining foes. His extending batons went snicker snack, and — well. It was all too quick and violent to show in good lighting. But suffice it to say, whoever he’d been fighting soon followed the crates into the water. One even landed atop a crate, with a solid crunch.

Cheshire turned to face Juniper.

“Good idea! That’s one way to—“

Had he suggested it? He couldn’t removed. Ah well. People came up from below decks to object. Two people, both women, both twins with black raven wings. They flew at juniper who was doing heavy lifting.

Elliott shouted watch out!! Then remembered it was juniper and she’d probably let them crash through her form and hit each other like a slapstick comedy act.

He walked towards her. All casual like.