๐๐๐๐ค ๐๐ค ๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ฃ๐ ๐ ๐ย ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐.[1]
Notes:
"Dialog parts will be like this."
"Bold and underlined dialogs are different languages spoken other than English."
YouTube videos are often embedded in my novel, which is best read on a computer.
Alex is still looking at the cracks on the road in front of the restaurant, eyes wide. Then his eyes turn to "normal" again. The officer he talks to is puzzled by what Alex said and asks.
"Sir, what do you mean it was a fictional character?"
The officer is wearing the standard NYPD uniform. He's of Latin American descent with black hair, brown eyes, and a quite handsome face, and has a slim build. Alex pulls out his phone, then opens a browser app and types fast. "This is the fictional character that Phaser was fighting," Alex says, while showing the officer his phone screen.
"What is it?" Wind Breaker asks behind the two of them.
"Oh, Jesus!" The officer jumped.
"Fu-!" Alex cursed, but stopped himself calmly, knowing it's Wind Breaker.
"Oh... Sorry... What are you two looking at?" Wind Breaker softens her voice.
"Oh yeah, this man right here might know what was Phaser fighting." He explains.
. . .
"It's a fictional character from an RPG, is that right?" Wind Breaker asks Alex.
Phaser interrupts, with more stable breathing. "So you're saying I would've been cooked?" Alex continues to explain.
"Yes. She's the fourth boss in the first chapter of the story, or fifth, I think. Anyway, most people in the community figured that she had a Juggernaut build because of her high Health Points and high Strength Points, that's why she's so tanky,ย andย her attacks are strong enough to cause all of this." While waving his hand towards the ruined road.
"Is the game popular?" The officer asks Alex. "There are a few thousand people still playing it. I guess it's decent, maybe?" He replied.
"Is there any like... specific things about the character that made the suspect use her?"
"She has a connection as a noblewoman from her kingdom and is also in a cult. She has a brother too, he's dead. Spoiler, but yeah, she's very pissed about that." He answers.
"Phaser, so you said you got 'sneaked' by this character when you were patrolling nearby?" The officer asked while Phaser was drinking water. "Yeah, I don't know if she was already in the area or just appeared near me. Might need to ask the people who were at the first location for more info, tho."
"I've got more questions to ask. Do you have the time, Alex?" He asks with an eager tone.
"I..." Alex wanted to answer, but he looked around the area and his family's restaurant, thinking for a moment. "I don't think I can. I gotta continue with my family's business, y'know? My parents are gonna be like-" He said. The officer nods. "Sure, not a problem at all. Can I have your number if I want to ask you again?" Alex replies. "Yeah."
After the phone number exchange between them, Alex goes inside the restaurant. A few customers left, glancing outside before opening the front door. The rest of them stay and continue eating like it's another Tuesday in New York.
"Understandable." Alex's thoughts. He walks towards the counter and asks while he's looking at the cashier. "Everybody good?" The cashier nods. "Alright. Let me know if any of you change your minds." He said, while walking away.
Alex walked towards the man wearing a janitor's clothes, cleaning the floor near the bathroom of the restaurant.
"Thanks, by the way, Berlin." He said, and Berlin quickly replied "Yeah, shit happens." and sighs. "Are you sure you're okay after grabbing a gun again?" Alex's voice sounds a little sympathetic while looking at Berlin's right hand, which is shaking a bit. "It was nothing too severe, I'll manage," Berlin says forcefully with a bitter tone. "Hopefully, nothing like this ever happens again. Take care of yourself and take breaks if you need them." Alex said and walked away through the side door of the restaurant while pulling out his phone and typing.
"Good afternoon, I'm Detective Margrave from the NYPD. Are you Alex?" A deep man's voice that sounds like he's been chain-smoking for years interrupted Alex's typing.
๐๐๐ฆ๐: ๐๐๐ญ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฏ๐
๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ: ๐๐จ๐ง๐
๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง: ๐๐๐ญ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐, ๐๐๐ฐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ
"Yeah?" Alex replied while he said, "Ah... Fuck." In his thoughts.
A man in his 30s, standing tall with eyes that have seen many cases in his career, approached Alex. "Can I ask you for more questions regarding the hologram character?" He asks.
"Well... The character is..." Stammering, what he's feeling is not intimidation from the detective. Rather, he doesn't want to say more that might put him in danger because he doesn't know if the criminal is gonna come after him or not.
"Should I tell him? Will I get a target on my back? No, of course not. It's public information. Anyone can search for it, the detective can search for it himself, and I can refuse to be questioned again. I just need a reason. But why am I scared? The one who controlled the hologram is not gonna target me? They might think I'm just a depressed loser that still plays kids' games pushing his 30s or something-" A voice interrupts Alex's pondering.
"Detective Margrave, glad to see you again!" Alex's inner thoughts were cut short by the sound of someone familiar, and a sigh of relief because Jovie had arrived cheerfully calling Margrave like an old friend, "Detective Margrave!"
Alex sighs after the detective turns around, greeting Jovie. As Jovie walks away from the black SUV, a man in a black jacket steps out of the driver's seat. The man is wearing a jacket that has the Earth's Radiance logo on the left of the chest. The man is built like a soldier. He's bald and has an intimidating face that can scare kids easily with just one look.
The officer looked over at Alex from the opposite sidewalk, from the front of the restaurant. "Hmm..." Concerned about Alex, he then got into his police cruiser and drove off.
"Mr. Jovie, good afternoon. I see that you're here not just to come and say hello while looking at the awful destruction?" Margrave said, presuming his intentions. "Nope, but let me tell ya. This situation is really interesting." Jovie said while looking at his surroundings, then stumbling onto a piece of the cracked road while struggling to maintain his balance Jovie whispered "Oh, shit!" "Careful, bud," Margrave said. "I'm thirsty. Care for a drink?" Jovie points at the restaurant, and Margrave nods once.
20 minutes later.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Jovie," Margrave said as he finished his coffee, followed by Jovie getting up as well, reaching out his hand to expect a handshake.
"As you said, the situation is interesting. I'll contact you if I need more information, yeah?"
"Yeah," Jovie replied while handshaking the detective.
As Margrave walks out of the restaurant, Alex gives a glance at Jovie. He notices and approaches him.
"So, you gave info to a cop, then you realized you don't want to get involved in another problem for... The second time?" Jovie said while both of them were looking at the scene outside from the windows.
"Almost the third time,ย but this time it's a game that Iย know, specifically, but the game is popular. So it's not a coincidence." Alex sighs at the end.
"I don't know." Confused on what to say next, Alex reached into his pockets and took a throat lozenge packet and ate one.
"Alex, do you want-"
BEEP BEEP - BEEP BEEP - BEEP BEEP.
Jovie's question got interrupted by a repeating beeping sound until he pushed something on his specialized watch.
"That doesn't sound good." Alex was a little concerned, and Jovie replied, "No..." While he's looking at the watch's GPS.
"Alex, there's an order for you to deliver!" A woman in a Hakka Eats uniform comes out from the kitchen.
"You be careful." Alex said, "Yeah."ย Jovie said while leaving the restaurant and waving his hand without looking back.
Meanwhile, at the crime scene, two police cars are surrounding the powered suspect at gunpoint, yelling "DROP THE MONEY AND SLOWLY PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!"
The other officer radioed in, "The suspect is wearing a green hoodie with dark gray jeans, wearing a mask, appears to be Caucasian, gender unclear, wearing sunglasses and a black backpack, currently holding a lot of paper money, the ATM is not damaged, possibly a powered individual..."
We go back to Jovie with the man in the black jacket driving to the location while the Earth's Radiance special siren wails.
"Is Wind Breaker occupied at the moment?" Jovie asks,
"Yes, she's currently on a bathroom break. Said she's been holding it for a while now." The man said.
"Oh, okay... What about Rose?" Jovie asks again, nervously,
"She's helping an organization in Hell's Kitchen." The man says as Jovie rubs his forehead, then pushes something at his specialized watch and asks, "Rose?" Jovie asks,
"Yes, I'm on my way," Rose replied through the watch.
"Alright. Sorry for interrupting what you were doing." She replied, "Ohhh, they'll be fine without me. Anyway, what are we working with?" Jovie sits up and answers, "Superpowered thief..."
Meanwhile, Alex is delivering food with the same Vespa and jacket while waiting at the traffic light. He's a few blocks away from the crime scene, which he sees on Jovie's specialized watch. He reaches for his water bottle but hears another specialized siren. In the distance, northeast of him. Toward the siren, we get to see what the hero looks like.
๐๐๐ซ๐จ: ๐๐จ๐ฌ๐๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ฒ
๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ: ๐๐ฎ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฆ๐๐ง ๐๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก
๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง: ๐๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ญ๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐, ๐๐๐ฐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง
Rosemary has hazel-colored eyes and wears a half-face, armored dark purple mask with pink outlines that covers her from jawline to the nose. Her hair is dark purple with white lowlights, which are parted in the middle, but the back of her hair has puffy ringlets. She has an average fit body for what her power truly is. She wears a fully padded bodysuit that is also purple colored with bright pink neon highlights and 2 shoulder pads on each side. Her left wrist has the same specialized watch that the other heroes wear. She has armored guards on both of her arms, her chest has the Earth's Radiance's logo, and she also wears armored tech boots. She's crouched down but holding the roof rack of the car. She has calm but focused eyes fixated in front of her.
Back at the active crime scene, 2 news crews from different stations are reporting live safely at an appropriate distance from the scene. More police officers are arriving than just a minute ago, and a black SUV just pulled up beside the police cruisers. Jovie walked out of the car along with the bald man. The suspect noticed and flinched, almost dropping the money they're holding. Jovie quickly moves towards a cruiser with the closest distance to the suspect, then he asks the officer beside him who yelled at the suspect earlier.
"What's the situation, officer?" As he asks, he's configuring his tech bracelet.
"Someone called 911 to report a suspicious person with a mask, sunglasses, and a hoodie. They said the suspect went through the ATM machine and just came out with a lot of money through the side door. We arrived, and the suspect didn't leave; they just stood there. Seems like this is their first attempt at stealing with their power."
Jovie is still configuring his bracelet, but eventually finishes and says to the officer, "Alright then. Watch out for other accomplices. It can't be just one person."
As the suspect frantically looked left and right. Jovie locked his eyes on the suspect. The standoff continued for a few seconds. Eventually, they dashed to their right while still holding all the money, but more were falling out. "Shit!" Said while panicking, their voice sounds like a teenager. The suspect activates their power to go through an officer ready to tackle them, but fails and falls forward. "Damn!" The officer on the ground. Some officers are guarding the ATM building still, so that no one is taking all the leftover money inside the ATM and some on the ground. Few are in pursuit, and Jovie is sprinting to catch the suspect while the other cops try to flank.
"Jovie is in pursuit, turning right towards East 42nd St! The suspect is a confirmed powered individual over!"
Rosemary and the other black SUV just pulled up at the crime scene, late.
"Traffic is bad today. Sorry, you guys didn't make it in time." Said the bald man while looking around the area.
"Can't do anything about it. Catch you guys later." Rosemary says as she runs at superhuman speed, catching up to the active pursuit.
"If you're staying here, then Imma gonna follow the pursuit, yeah?" A man wearing a hat with the same black jacket in the driver's seat of the black SUV that Rosemary was on top of said.
Annoyingly, the bald man replied, "Yeah, sure." The hat guy chuckled and rolled up the window.
We go back to the chase. Jovie is catching up to the suspect because of the money that is slowing them down. "The suspect is going left throughย an alleyway!" He said.
A car came out of the alleyway, and the suspect went through it with their power. Upbeat music started playing in the background.
Jovie's running matched the tempo of the music. Jovie is seen smiling while running, but slowly going towards the edge of the sidewalk, building up speed.
He runs towards the alleyway, then jumps as high as he can. His bracelet glows, andย BOW!
He's launched just above the car and rolled on the ground with a nice recovery.
The suspect knows that he's behind them and immediately searches for something in the bag.
They got a flash grenade, a ping, and a click sound can be heard then...
A flash grenade is thrown towards Jovie while they're not looking back,ย and they hope it lands in front of Jovie.
Jovie turns to his right just a little later, trying to cover his eyes with his hand, but the grenade is too close to him.
An invisible round wall protects him, bounces the grenade away from him about 5 feet in the air, andย FLASHBANG!
The invisible wall protects him again, which dampens the loud bang to not become deaf, but his eyes are not as good.
"FUCK!" Jovie shouts as he's covering his temporarily blinded eyes.
A heavy thud can be heard behind him, and it becomes thuds that get closer to Jovie.
"Rose? Ugh!" He asks as he groans.
"Don't worry, I'm gonna get them!" Rosemary said as she ran past Jovie.
Rosemary shouts, "Mask Up!" Then her half-face mask transforms and extends through her eyes, then her face, and finally covers her entire head like a motorcycle helmet, but bulkier and armored in just one second.
"Exiting the alleyway, heading left eastbound on East 41st St!"
The suspect looks over their shoulder behind them, and Rosemary is catching up in seconds. As soon as they see Rosemary.
They turn right and then search for something in their bag again. "Heading into a building. It's a driveway going through the front of the building-"
A ping and click sound.
"GRENADE!" While still running, the grenade is thrown directly in front of her.
Rosemary grabs the grenade with enough strength and control, she throws it as high as possible, approximately hundreds of feet in the air,ย BANG!ย It flashes, not causing harm to any civilians.
The suspect quickly goes through traffic with their power. A car hits the brakes, still going straight into an underground parking space. Rosemary slows down so as not to bump into any civilians. She is slowly keeping up with the suspect.
"The suspect appears to be using their power not to get grabbed by us or get hit by anyone! Let's just follow them!"
Rosemary said as she paced herself with the suspect's running speed about two meters behind them.
"We are out of the parking space and turning left, heading eastbound to 2nd Avenue! STOP RUNNING DAMN IT!" she shouts as she gets closer to the suspect.
BOOM... BAAM... BOP... Sounds coming from on top of them both. It's Jovie using his tech bracelet to bounce in the air that which looks like he's bouncing with multiple invisible trampolines matching with the beat. With an angry look on his face, he's catching up to them.
They know the heroes are getting closer and closer, and they decide to go through traffic and in the middle of the road, and with all their might, to run faster than before.
"Be advised, the suspect is in the middle of the road going to the left and slowing down!" The suspect is showing fatigue and holding onto the stone wall with tall, black fences with spikes that separate the pedestrian sidewalk from the tunnel road below. Rosemary's heavy thuds start slowing down.
Showing little to no sign of tiredness or out of breath, Rosemary approaches the suspect slowly.
"Come on. I know this chase is tiring you out. Don't reach into your bag for any more grenades." Rosemary said as the suspect, panting.
She grabs their left hand, but it phased through them. Suddenly, the suspect quickly turns around and sprints, passing officers, vehicles, and eventually going through the other stone wall. Dropping on top of a big truck, and the driver didn't notice because the teenager was lightweight.
"For fuck's sake!" Rosemary, frustrated, runs to her left, tries to cut off the truck from a different direction.
"This one is annoying." Jovie, irritated, climbs up the stone wall, jumps away from it, and bounces over the stone wall and fence, bounces again midair following the truck.
Meanwhile, the teen suspect dented the truck's cargo box's roof. The ankle is sprained. They struggle not to move too much, not to alert the driver.
"Black... Hearth..." They say the name, whimpering in pain. "Black Hearth...."
"Haaaaaaaa~~ Don't be scared, my child."
A woman's voice can be heard echoing around the teen suspect and the surrounding people. The truck driver heard the voice, confused, but a big black smoldering smoke appeared in front of the truck at a T-intersection.
But on the other side of the black smoke is Alex.
The driver hit the brakes immediately, but he's too late and crashed into the left side of Alex and his Vespa, onto the right sidewalk from where he was hit to where he landed.
๐ผ๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐ฅ๐๐ฃ ๐
[1] IMPORTANT NOTE: Re-read Chapter 1 for an updated version with fixed date, pictures, etc. This chapter might also need revisions. Thank you!