Breakneck Extraordinaire Issue 1 :: Breakneck Speed

How boring could someone possibly make the history of the world? Extremely boring it seemed to Elizabeth, mind numbing even. Who was supposed to be able to remember all those archaic names and samey dates? Well maybe she'd be able to if she wasn't distracted by the pulsating pain caused by a couple of large bruises, along with the constant physical and mental battle she had to fight to hide it. She'd spent a good hour fighting and avoiding thugs the night before, only to be blindsided by a delivery scooter as she crossed a street, at least she had gotten a tasty pizza out of the ordeal, the driver's way of apologizing.

''Miss Brewer could you please answer my question?'' Mister Lorelio, the history teacher, was standing at the head of the class, an eyebrow raised in a way that would have been humorous if he hadn't looked so annoyed.

''Hmm . . some french dude?'' It was a wild guess, but it was probably a decent one.

The old man's glare seemed to worsen, making Elizabeth cringe slightly, at least no one had erupted in laughter yet. ''Napoleon wasn't just 'some french dude', miss Brewer.'' He began, before erupting in a long tirade about the achievements of the diminutive general.

Yup, good guess, she relaxed slightly. That probably wasted most of her luck for the day, but avoiding the direct ire of the strict man was worth it. The girl sighed, passing a hand through her short messy red hair, only half an hour left before freedom. Cold pizza and a warm bath awaited her home, if nothing went horribly wrong before then of course.

3:01:24 PM
Thursday, July 9th, 2303
New Eden

The thirty minutes creep by at a snails pace, Lorelio continuing to discuss the intricacies of the Napoleonic Wars and relationships between the major powers at the time, whenever the classes interest waned he would insist,

"Ancient history must not be ignored, war was different five hundred years ago, but not as different as you may think."

Finally, he finished up, assigned some homework for the long weekend, something about how Napoleon influenced European institutions, before the bell rang and the class was permitted to file out of the room.

Most after school sports activities were cancelled due to the pouring rain, it was supposed to be nice and sunny out but it looks like they were dead wrong, it was a veritable downpour. Students were screaming and laughing as they rushed to their buses and a bolt of bright white lighting crawled through the sky as a echoing boom washed over the city. It wasn't long before all the buses began to leave.

Congratulating herself on not falling asleep, Elizabeth exited the building, then glared at the sky, looking for some force to blame for the terrible weather. Finding nothing, she covered her head with the hood of her hoodie, a plain red thing. She exchanged a few jokes with some school friends as they ran to their buses, before setting out on her skateboard through the wet streets of New York toward her home, her bag, full of homework she had little intention of doing, swung over her shoulder. She was soaked to the bones a block later, her mood went from poor to abysmal. Hopefully the criminals would probably be deterred by the rain as much as she was, there was no way she was patrolling in that kind of weather.

3:52:12 PM
Thursday, July 9th, 2303
New Eden

The stairs up to the apartment were slick with rain, the drops deafening. It was as if all sound disappeared once inside, a low hum sounding through the walls. The inside of the house was dark and silent, save for the light pittle-pattle of paws as Mr. Crowley, a fat black cat came to investigate Elizabeth's arrival. It meowed when it saw her, before turning tail and returning into the living room.

There was the occasional footsteps and murmur of voices through the thin walls and the the echo of water in the pipes. In the dim-lit kitchen Elizabeth could see a note on the table:

Hey Lizzy, I won't be there tonight, got another double shift,
I noticed leftover pizza in the fridge so I'll assume you'll eat that.
I should be back in the morning, so make sure to do your homework,
and change the cat's litter.

XOXO Mom

Mr. Crowley hopped onto the table, his massive body sliding on the polished surface before rubbing his head on Elizabeth's knuckles. Another blast of thunder echoed through the building sending the cat scurrying into one of the bedrooms.

Elizabeth dropped her bag in the cramped entryway and went to the kitchen where she read the note. She chuckled as Crowley scurried away from the sudden noise. The cat's name was an obscure reference to a show she had found on the internet and that she enjoyed, Supernatural. Luckily he hadn't lived up to his namesake, way too cuddly and not conniving enough, as far as she knew at least. After weighing her options for a minute, she decided a scalding bath was a great first step, her stomach could wait. She discarded her dripping clothes as she poured herself a bath, taking time to check on her bruises, nothing seemed broken and they were healing decently well. So far she had managed to explain away the small wounds as skateboard accidents, it wouldn't work for a stab or a gunshot, although she'd have bigger things to worry about then explaining them if they were to occur.

She soaked until the water turned room temperature, before exiting with reluctance. She put on her pajamas, which consisted only of an over-sized t-shirt with a big question mark on the front. She then set out to re-heat the pizza in the oven, managing to make an half-decent meal with it, which in pizza term meant mediocre at best. She routed out Mr.Crowley from under a bed to share the anchovies from her pie. She ate while watching the news, her heroics probably wouldn't make it there, but one could always hope.

Later she'd spend some time looking through internet forums on her beat up old laptop, looking to find out if anyone was talking about the vigilante with the baseball bat. She'd probably forget the cat's litter, there was much more important things to do, like waste time on the internet.

7:22:53 PM
Thursday, July 9th, 2303
New Eden

The news was uninteresting, very little was happening. There was details on a diplomatic briefing with members of the League of Heroes in Barcelona earlier in the week along with some images of destroyed property. There was a commercial for a new pair of shoes that could emit a pulse through the sole that contracts water molecules making it possible to walk on water. Finally the news broadcast cut to Diana Lancelot, the NYBN's resident personality,

"News comes in today detailing an unidentified disaster level event off the coast of France, we have little to no details on what is going on and no information has been transmitted. With what seems to be some kind of electric interference we have nothing but rough satellite imagery of what appears to be a destroyed town, possibly be an earthquake or tsunami of some kind." The scene cuts to fuzzy images of a wrecked city, "We have made efforts to contact the International Security and Investigation Service as well as the spokesmen for the League of Heroes for comments on the event but have received no replies. We will make sure to find out what we can in the mean time and get you the information as soon as possible."

----

The internet consisted of the usual derogatory and sometime disgusting discussions, there was pretty much no information about a vigilante with a baseball bat with the exception of a lone and not very popular blog titled capesncrooks.blog.net which had a short article about several known felons, most on parole, found by the police, incapacitated and restrained, next to illegal weapons and substances, and victim to blunt trauma. It seems two of them needed medical attention and have been hospitalized, the others arrested.

Elizabeth played video games well into the night, the storm and her bruises keeping her inside for now. She hoped for some clearer nights soon so she could indulge her 'hobby'. When she became tired, she curled up in her bed with Mr.Crowley and started planning, in her head, the recon she'd do the next day, before succumbing to slumber.

1:18:49 AM
Friday, July 10th, 2303
New Eden

The night creeped on, the consistent sound of rain tapping against the glass. Elizabeth and Mr. Crowley lay curled in bed when a loud thud followed by a crash wakes them. At first you might have thought it came from in the apartment, but then the sound of frustrated yelling quelled by the ceiling making it impossible to make out. An argument? If that was the case then it was a rare occurrence, the couple upstairs had always been a reserved lot.

A half a minute later another thud echoes atop your room, making it particularly difficult to sleep.

Elizabeth glared at her ceiling as if the plaster itself was to blame, the only thing she wanted was a good night of sleep for once, a weekend like everybody else. She got out of bed swiftly nonetheless, and dressed up in a dark gray hoodie with some jeans. Maybe she was paranoid, but she had to check up on her upstairs neighbor anyhow and she couldn't possibly wear her costume so close to home, even more so if she was answering to such a small disturbance, it would give away too much. Still, she drew up her hood, obscuring her features and with the barely fitting clothes it was hard to tell her gender. Well she'd make for a pretty small guy at 5'6'', but thugs rarely believed a girl could beat them up so soundly so most just accepted it. She grabbed her bat still, she didn't feel very safe without it.

She sneaked out of the apartment, locking it behind her and hiding the key under the doormat, possibly dropping that somewhere was a terrible idea. She then stealthily made her way up the stairs, sticking to the shadows, hoping she wouldn't have to break into her neighbor's home.

1:21:37 AM
Friday, July 10th, 2303
New Eden

About two thirds through Elizabeth's preparations most of the sounds stopped, except for the occasional sound of footsteps and a murmur, drowned by the rain. The hallways of the apartment were silent as she made her way up the stairs, each step creaking ever so slightly. Elizabeth could hear shuffling and footsteps coming from the floor above but when she reached the hallway there was nothing there.

The apartment in question, apartment 12, had it's door ajar, the inside of home was messy, scattered furniture, broken glass, and the still body of Mrs. Yura facedown in a pool of blood.

Then through the rain, you hear voices, and looking through the window you see a group of three men exiting the apartment through the front door, with a fourth man being dragged in tow.

It was a shitty neighborhood, she didn't figure it was that bad though. Not really having the time to figure out what was going on, Elizabeth burst into action, exiting the apartment with haste while taking out her cellphone to call an ambulance, probably too late, but she couldn't do much else for Ms. Yura. She had a chance to do something for the man being dragged away though, so she ran out of the building after the men, making sure to stay out of sight. Jumping them right here would get messy, she just had to follow them to their hideout and rescue the man from there, they didn't seem inclined to kill him right away at least.

She now wished she had taken the time to put on her outfit, but the mask she had in her pocket would have to do for the night, hopefully the darkness and the pouring rain would obscure most of her.

1:22:47 AM
Friday, July 10th, 2303
New Eden

"Hello, this is emergency dispatch, how can I be of assistance?
...Hello?" A pause
"We will have police and medical personnel sent to your current location."

As Elizabeth dashed into the drenched streets she could see the men about eighty feet down the street stuffing the someone, who aws probably Mr. Yuira, into a van, one of them glanced at Liz through the rain, "We got a witness." he said just barely audible over the rain, she couldn't hear a reply, the man simply nodded quickly and leaped in the back of the van as it drove off.

Elizabeth would never catch it by foot, but could see it turn right at the end of the street, with luck she could cut through the alley next to her apartment and intercept it.

Well damn. Off course they'd have a getaway vehicle. With a bit of luck and some very intense running, she'd be able to follow it for some time by cutting through alleys and the like. The intense rain would probably slow the car more than her and so would the need for them to stay inconspicuous. Elizabeth shoved her cellphone in her pocket as she dashed into the alley, while putting on her mask, the thugs weren't likely to think the person they saw at the crime scene was the same as the one showing up at their hideout, hopefully. The ground was slick with rain and various debris almost made the alley impassable, it didn't even slow her down though.

1:23:02 AM
Friday, July 10th, 2303
New Eden

The alleyway was cramped and wet but Elizabeth zoomed through leaping over boxes and trash. As she emerged out of the buildings a pair of drunk men startled and backed away. Elizabeth saw the distinct black van drive past the nearby intersection and continue along its path, rushing into another alley she continues her furious sprint.

On the other side she sees the vehicle turn down an off ramp circling around and about to pass beneath a nearby bridge. At that moment another car passes by Elizabeth splashing water onto her.

Elizabeth swore under her breath at the vehicle, the splash didn't make her any wetter, but it was about the principle of the thing. Having almost missed where the ones she was pursuing went, she barely took a second to catch her breath before continuing her mad dash, wishing for a moment she had brought her skateboard.

1:24:39 AM
Friday, July 10th, 2303
New Eden

Elizabeth's rush along the street led her slightly ahead of the vehicle, within 30 seconds the van will pass beneath the bridge that connects the two sides of the lowered road, alternatively there is a narrow staircase leading town the ramp that would bring Elizabeth onto the highway.

Jumping off the bridge could leaver more than bruised but running onto the highway is takes more time and leaves less room to try and intercept the van. Alternatively she could try and keep chasing the vehicle and hope that it didn't get away from her.

Well, being a vigilante was never really about safety anyhow, or so Elizabeth thought as she leaped from the bridge unto the upcoming vehicle. She made sure to catch the lowest part of the overpass that she could while falling to land safely, as safely as one can when doing something as crazy as that. She hoped that her luck and incredible agility would see her through that stunt.

1:25:09 AM
Friday, July 10th, 2303
New Eden

Luck did not fail her. Planting her foot on the guard rail and leaping off the overpass through the rain she landed with a heavy thud onto the van slipping and tumbling slightly but suffering no injury. The rain and the sound of the engine were too loud to hear anything coming from inside the van but just a few seconds later a deafening blast echoed through the night as a bullet ripped its way through the roof of the van nearly a foot from Elizabeth's face.

Well if someone is shooting at you and you can't get into cover or see them to dodge, there's only one thing left to do; make yourself as small a target as possible. Which in this case meant that Elizabeth began slowly standing up, cursing her own foolhardiness as she did so. She placed herself sideways, one foot toward the front of the vehicle and one foot toward the back, she then leaned slightly toward the front of the car.

''Crime fighting and acrobatics weren't enough, I had to take up car surfing too.'' She thought to herself as she shifted her weight around to stay stable. She was pretty sure she could survive a fall from this speed with her skills, it was still a terrible idea though.

1:25:57 AM
Friday, July 10th, 2303
New Eden

As Elizabeth stood and balanced herself atop the car a second and third bullet pierced the roof, narrowly missing her. the water layering the roof of the van made keeping her balance difficult at best as her feet slipped and she slid down onto the front of the van her back to the window. Looking inside she could see the driver a little closer.

He was Caucasian, with a long face and a square jaw covered in a thick, yet well maintained full beard with nicely parted hair. His skin was rough and wrinkled and he had a thick, poorly healed, scar inching it's way from his upper left lip to his left temple. He didn't flinch, as a matter of fact he looked rather bored (contrary to the two other men in the back who were shuffling around in a panic), he looked like it did this all the time. And before Elizabeth knew it the man sharply turned the van right up an off-ramp which sent Elizabeth tumbling off the left side of the van, barely grasping onto the finger-hold between the chassis of the van and the front windshield