Crime

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky stood before the broken mirror in his crappy little hiding spot, trying to decide again if he should wear a mask or just not bother. His life on the run had finally sunk to a new low: crime. The young man had just decided to rob a local, family-owned grocery store so he can buy food (hooray for the irony). He put his ski mask on, then took it back off and sighed. The problem was the damn scar.

A huge burn mark covered the left side of his face. His eye was damaged; it was barely open, and in his few weak moments where he cried, no tears came from it. Luckily, his hair had finally grown shaggy enough to hide his withered ear. The scar would identify him too well; not everybody had a huge scar on their faces. Then, none of them had laser powers, either. Ricky sneered and turned from his reflection before he cracked the mirror again, recalling the day his powers had come into being.

He picked a spot in his dilapidated and most likely condemned apartment building and pointed his palm. A red beam shot from it and burst the moldy armchair he'd targeted into flames. The light around him dimmed slightly as he used his power, but he didn't notice. They were still working. Good, if he could keep from firing at anything reflective.

Ricky pulled on a set of gloves that had the palms and fingertips missing (they were blown out when he'd fired his lasers) and kicked his facemask under a nearby table on his way out the door. Who the hell cared who saw him? He only had the one set of clothes, and his gloves would give him away just as easily. Let them know what he'd done. Let them know he was a mutant. He decided as he turned up the street that he'd give anyone who wanted to gawk a souvenir to remember him by.

[Boulder]

The Boulder was sweating boulders. Well....figuratively anyway. This was going to be his first job that was not a simple home robbery. Money was short, His jeans had holes in the knees, his shoes were worn and broken with the heels of them flapping and slapping with every step.

"At least The Boulder managed to get the medicine for grams," he muttered to himself. The meds will hold her for a while, but more money was needed to keep her getting better. And a little extra leftover cash would be nice for cloths he thought as he scratched his bellybutton through one of the many holes in his sleeveless black shirt.

He kept walking towards the grocery store as the sun went down, but the nervousness would not leave him. "Gotta start small...gotta start small..." he mumbled.

The sweat felt like it turned to ice as he walked in and the AC blasted him. Eyes darting around The Boulder made his move.....and promptly began meekly walking around the store after grabbing a cart as he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart and regain his composure.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus Heidegger was enjoying his visit in America. His lecture series on mutants and their special gene were a smashing success in the medical world. The single gene was the same no matter how many mutants were sampled, and yet the powers that the mutants manifested were almost never identical.

Klaus reviewed his choice of produce as he sought a particular apple. Klaus loved produce. His native Warsaw was a very cold place and there were several fruits that he didn't often see. Oranges were one such fruit.

After seeing that he could not find an apple that seemed to him to be distinctly American in origin, he picked one of several apples and placed them in a basket.

He turned around to look at some of the other foods when he bumped into a large American with tattered clothes.

"I am sorry," he said with his thick accent.

The man was a giant. He was tall, solidly built, and looked like he could be dangerous to cross in an alleyway. Klaus busied his mind guessing the man's genetic map as he made his way to the check out counter with his newly changed currency. He loved being European. The Euro went so much farther than the dollar. He'd have to buy a car or something while he was there.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky gave a full-body shudder as the air-conditioning hit him, crossing to the counter before his resolve gave out entirely. He pounded the ancient wooden surface to get the clerk's attention, and pointed his index finger at the wage slave.

"Empty the register," he commanded in a growl. The clerk scoffed, grinning like Ricky had just told him a lame joke.

"Sure, sure. Nice gun chief." The man beckoned Heidegger forward, and as the European put his basket on the counter, Ricky drew in the light and blew it into so much plastic goo without a thought.

"It is a damn nice gun," he retorted. Now gimme the ruttin' money."

[Boulder]

As he wandered around, a european man bumped into the The Boulder. He immediately backed up a step and went around appologizing as he went. "So sorry..." was I ever REALLY that small...? Of course I was...otherwise I wouldn't be HERE like this right NOW, he thought.

The bump with the smaller man for some reason helped to calm The Boulder. With his head back on and his heart back to normal rates, he had just mustered up the courage to go find the vault in the back of the store when he heard a commotion up front.

He walked quickly up front to see the smaller man he bumped into staring slightly bewildered at his melted mess of a basket and the man who did it. The cashier was about to pee himself from the look of it, and the man causing the trouble was kind of small, well....smaller than The Boulder anyway. He had a scar on his eye, and his finger was smoking.

"CrapcrapcrapcrapcrapSONOFACRAP!" He muttered to himself. What are the odds of TWO people robbing the same store. "sonofa....I need the money at LEAST as much as this guy....what am I gonna do what am I gonna do...."

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Heidegger was not impressed. "My apples!" He exclaimed.

He scowled at the mutant. This one apparently had no responsibility with his so-called gift. Once his research bore real fruit, he would be cutting the mutant gene out of every last one of the aberrant freaks. This one would be first on his list.

"You are a dangerous mutant. Ma'am, please do as this mutant has asked. For all our sakes."

The doctor knew better than to try to intervene himself at the moment. He kept a syringe with some basic anesthetic to knock out mutants when he found them. His "research team" was always close by whenever Klaus went out into the field in case the good doctor found a specimen he wanted taken back to his facility.

Ricky Rider was definitely on that list.

He flipped open the phone he kept in his hoodie pocket and texted his crew foreman. Then he found the syringe in the same pocket. It was unbroken and still carried its precious contents. When the time was right, he would inject Rider. Perhaps he could somehow manage to get himself taken as "hostage."

He would wait and see if the authorities arrived in time to make the young man panic. If he were to be driven to desperation, Klaus just might find himself at finger-point, as it were.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky resisted the urges to put out his glove and cough at the smoke. He needs to be as intimidating as the big bald guy looked. The cashier, fearful for his life, had started emptying the register and his wallet on top of that, whimpering in a voice much too high for a man's normal speaking voice.

"Yeah, don't pee on yourself," Ricky grumbled. He looked sideways at Klaus, who was giving him a very intense stare.

"What, you got a problem with mutants? You want a scar to match mine? Go stare at the Big Show over there or something." The cashier fumbled a roll of quarters and bent to pick it up, pressing a silent alarm button under the counter as he stood.

"Uh...will..." the guy stopped, took a breath, and managed to bring his voice to normal. "Will that be all?"

[Boulder]

As The Boulder watched the goings on, he saw the cashier bend down and stand back up, and little needles pricked up on the back of his neck. Die he? Oh man...I think he did. The Boulder had worked in a store, among other things in his job hunts and if this store was like the one he worked at on the other side of town, there was a silent alarm button under the register.

CRAP! Well...the people seem to be cooperating, and that other guy with the smoking glove looks fine for now...as long as nobody does anything stupid. And the little foreign guy looks and sounds smart enough...done then.

The Boulder, without a word, took off sprinting to the office that was tucked away in the front corner of the store. If it was like like the other store, there would be a vault with more money than the cash register.

The Boulder reached into his pockets and pulled out a handfull of rocks. Better to use this than wreck the whole store if I can help it. Less of a trail, but I gotta be quick if that cashier pressed a silent alarm.

Bursting into the office room, The Boulder saw the vault in a corner with a VERY overweight woman sitting, hunched over behind a desk.

"The alarm has been set off! You won't get away with this!" the fat lady screamed. She MIGHT be a problem, but maybe not. "Don't move from that desk lady..."

Flicking a rock and rushing it toward the safe like a bullet, The Boulder, after 3 well place shots and 3 good rocks, busted the safe open while the fat lady just sat there breathing hard.

"****!!!" The Boulder yelled. The woman, already flustered, gasped and almost fell out of her chair. "W-w-what?" she stammered.

"....The Boulder forgot a bag...." The Boulder muttered. "Give me your purse!" Without waiting, he grabbed the purse, large like the lady, dumped the contents out on the desk, and stuffed the money from the vault into it. Must be about a grand here. Not much, but enough. Gotta start small...

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus was bored. He'd been on the field when more dangerous mutants were brought into the Jericho center. He'd seen men turn into giants, some grow claws, extra appendages, fly, swim, burrow, and any number of things.

But this young man was wild and unpredictable. Totally unadulterated, he attacked this little grocery store. He also knew, as the mutant must, that the employee had hit some kind of alarm button when he went for the money he dropped.

It was conspicuous, ill-thought, and ineffective.

He could handle Ricky Rider right there and knock him out. He needed his team there before the police arrived. He texted his foreman again. The man was dependable: he would get there on time and prevent the real police from appearing. All he had to do was kill time.

"There are other registers here. There must be more money. Why not bully these people out of that money too?" he sneered. "No matter what might come, you can just melt them like you did my basket!"

Goading Ricky was a dangerous move. The mutant might retaliate on him. But it was worth a chance. A man had to face some physical danger when trying to make breakthroughs in new scientific fields.

[Ricky Rider]

He took the bag full of money with his left hand and slapped his other palm over Heidegger's left eye. He was done, he didn't need this snotty European's lip.

"So you do want a scar. Well, don't worry. You won't even feel the pain at first, and I hear chicks dig scars." The light around him was just starting to blacken as he drew it in for his laser, when the bell over the door jingled. Heidegger's people had just arrived. Ricky spun and fired at the intruder.

[Boulder]

The fat lady "snuck" up behind The Boulder as he stuffed the last of the money from the vault into his new bag. Hearing the popping sound of a tazer behind him, The Boulder flicked a rock into the air, and turned his head to make sure it hit his mark. With a little motion of his hand, The Boulder guided the pebble, smacking the fat woman in the temple, dropping her like a, well, stone. "That'll be a fun headache to wake up to, but you'll be alright." The Boulder tossed a few twenteys onto the prone woman muttering, "Buy yourself a new purse....and a weight loss program..."

Slinging the purse turned loot bag over his shoulder, The Boulder headed back the way he came, into the main area of store, to find the scarred guy spinning away from the small funny man, and blasting some sort of light from his hand at whoever it was that just walked in. Things have just gotten ugly...but when have the police ever responded this quick...? The Boulder thought. Doesn't matter...here comes someone to bust this up, and it's gotta be the cops. Who else could it be?

The Boulder ducked behind a now vacant checkout desk and tried to figgure out what to do, who was who, who to help, who to leave, or if The Boulder should just fly the coop and protect his own hide.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus smirked as his men flooded the grocery store. He made a discrete hand signal to one of them and crouched down to prep his syringe. Once the store lights went out, Ricky would go out too.

One of the men spoke a code into his walkie and yelled, "Freeze! This is the police! Drop the money and put your hands in the air!"

As efficient as Dr. Heidegger's entourage could be, it would be a minute at least before the lights went out. Klaus himself wasn't terribly worried. Most of the men got excellent hazard pay.

"Get on the ground, son!" The false officer shouted to Ricky.

[Ricky Rider]

"Ladies first," Ricky retorted, firing a beam from each finger on his free hand. The men scattered, taking cover behind whatever was handy. He started for the door, eager to get out while the cops were hiding from his lasers, when the power went out suddenly. His lasers flickered and weakened, with only the light coming through the door, and Ricky changed his mind about escaping slowly and keeping his enemies pinned down. He sprinted for the door.

[Boulder]

As the scarred guy blasted at the cops, making them jump for cover, The Boulder decided that he may as well use his distraction to get out too. Then....the lights went out...and the floppy sole of The Boulder's left shoe caught on something, probably the cashier's desk, and ripped completely off, throwing The Boulder off balance for a second. Upon placing his foot down, The Boulder gasped as the cold floor made contact with toes, heel, and ball of foot that were exposed through a tattered sock, if it could still be called that.

Holy crap that's cold. But now that I think about it, that laser guy is probably just like me. Down on his luck, needing cash just to get by and unable to get a real job. If it comes down to it, I've gotta help him out.

After a moment of his eyes adjusting to the dark, and realizing it was dark enough that he could not see anything, The Boulder went down on all fours as his head was flooded with waves of information. The boulder was "seeing" ripples in the ground all around him. One, where the laser guy was, was quickly moving towards the door in a series of ripples. Others scattered, while still others appeared as a huge wave as cops dove for cover and hit the ground.

Closing his eyes, to no avail, The Boulder tried to make sense of these topsy turvy images swimming in his head. Banging his head against the floor, The Boulder let out a low moan. "AAAaaaawwwwwmmmmmmmmmmmmhmmmhmmmm...." To his peril, every time The Boulder's head made contact with the floor, the ripples going out from him, proceeded to form shapes around him in a 3-D fassion.

There were people... The scarred guy in a freezeframe, running for the door. Cops frozen in a ripple as they ran to the sides, or laying on the ground. The registers, solid, birght, and intimidating, blinding The Boulder's mind's eye. The doorway and room with the safe, and the fat lady sill laying on the ground appeared behind him. Civilians hiding in the back of the store, behind scyscrapers of shelving. All the walls of the store lit up, and blasted his mind in bright light, slowly fading as the wall climed where the vibrations got too weak to reach. Glimpses of cops hugged up against the wall outside of the store, on the street. A faint glimpse of four points that form a box, presumably a car.

The Boulder, in his first "real" robbery attempt, head spinning, did something that he was even less proud of than the whole botched attempt. The Boulder threw up.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus took off after Ricky, urging his helpers out the door to get him.

"If he gets away and I cannot sedate him, we lose a very important find," he hissed into the foreman's ear.

Now things were going to be more difficult. In the darkness of the grocery, Ricky could have been dispatched and taken away before anyone was the wiser. Out in the world it was more public and things would get much more complicated.

"Minimal damage to civilians and property," he urged the foreman. "I won't be paying gag money to keep these stupid Americans' mouths shut. Herd him into some dark place so we can finish him quietly and quickly."

Klaus was not pleased. Apparently the mutant was already very adept at using his powers for being so young.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky burst into the street as the real cops arrived. He figured they were backup for the ones inside, and fired both hands at their cars. The heat from the laser combusted the fuel and oil in the engine, giving the young mutant some cover as he sprinted down the street. If he could just make it to his hiding spot, he'd be alright.

[Boulder]

After a short eternity, which was probably no more than a minute, The Boulder came back to the world, drawn my an explosion from outside, which sent more ripples of light into his mind's eye, but at least, after the initial shock of it, The Boulder was a little more prepared for it. Lots of ripples were moving. One to the side of the shock of the explosion going down the street, while others landed away from it. That must be the scarred kid. The Boulder thought as he got back to his feet.

He slipped a little in the puddle of his vomit and was VERY glad that the lights were out at that moment. Then, The Boulder noticed vibrations chasing after the kid.

"The Boulder decided to help the laser guy...so let's go mister The Boulder!" Shaking his head and regaining his composure as he sprinted towards the door, The Boulder gave chase.

Emerging outside, the moon shining, the streetlamps blinding, The Boulder stumbled as his vision went white for a moment, and more to his dismay, the ripples in his mind turned black, but quickly faded as his eyes adjusted to the light outside. It was a short sight of mayhem. A cop car on fire, with cops everywhere. Great....just where I DON'T want to be.

Then, a funny thing caught The Boulder's eye. A few cops, that for some reason didn't look quite like the other cops, and the funny talking man from the store were running in the direction that the kid went, clearly chasing him, while most of the other cops fumbled around in a daze.

The Boulder started chasing the people who were chasing the person he didn't want chased. After all, he and the kid were in the same situation....maybe... Man....I hope the rest of these cops don't get involved, or this could get messy... Just in case, The Boulder pulled another handful of rocks from his pocket as he ran.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus kept Ricky in sight. The kid blew up some of the real police cars.

"Well, that helps to take care of the real police."

The scientist was beginning to wish he had tagged the kid with a beacon. If they could track him back to his home place they could just raid him once the boy was sure he was out of trouble. As it was, they were going to have to let him lead them there.

"I need Units Four, Five, and Nine to set up a perimeter around this section," Klaus commanded.

The foreman began making the arrangements. Soon half the block would be effectively sealed off. It would help him to corner the mutant. Then it was a simple matter to close in, put Ricky under, and take him to headquarters.

Klaus noticed the large man from before running in behind them. "We have an extra," he commented to the foreman.

There would be time for dealing with that one in a moment. For now, cornering Ricky was the first priority.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky swept his hand behind him, waving his laser across the area where he hoped his pursuers would be. Once he decided he'd done enough, he made a fast detour down an alleyway, hoping to further lose them in the clutter and winding corridors between the old buildings. His hideout was only a block away, and if he chose his hiding spot within the condemned building correctly, they'd never find him.

[Boulder]

The Boulder saw Scarface duck into an ally and that's when he made his move. Everyone was on the sidewalk chasing after him, and The Boulder knew just what to do. And it would be fun besides.

"Let's Rock and Roll!!"

In the span of about 5 seconds, The Boulder put his hands out in front of him, palms down, stopped, braced himself, and with all his might made a pulling motion towards him and then up, ending up with his palms facing the air above him, and the sidewalk, from 5 feet in front of him, to a little past the alleyway, moved towards The Boulder and slid up over his head, like a giant carpet being pulled very quickly. Everyone on it should have tripped head over heels.

As the slab of concrete wooshed overhead, The Boulder made a motion like breaking a board in two, and the sidewalk cracked and broke into two pieces, roughly 8 feet long and 5 feet wide. In one more swift motion, before anyone could get up, The Boulder swept his arms around, and landed one of the slabs longways, sticking up into the air, in front of the alley that Scarface ducked into, and plowed the second on top of it, pushing the bottom one into the ground a few inches, and the top one melding with the bottom. One last push, and both slabs sunk a few inches into the buildings on either side of the alleyway forming a very nice, tight, 10 foot wall of concrete.

The Boulder, sweating profusely from his exerstion, smiled a large smirk, clearly satisfied with the results.

"Not bad for The Boulder's first time moving something so big."

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

The ground gave way under Klaus and his crew. He landed face first into the concrete wall that suddenly stood in his way.

"We've lost the target! Alert all team members to be on the lookout. We'll have to find another way around or tear down this wall!"

Klaus looked around to find the tall man behind him. The man looked like he had recently done some great toil.

"You are a mutant, too."

The statement was a fact, not a question. The tall man was the only one around who showed signs of performing feats like the one that just occurred.

"You can move the ground. I must admit, I have not yet run across a mutant with those powers."

Klaus snapped a picture of the Boulder with his cell phone. "You would do well to leave us to catching the other mutant. He is very important to my research. You, on the other hand may roam a while before I decide to add you to my menagerie."

One of Klaus' men began affixing plastic explosive on the cement wall. The doctor and his team retreated to the other side so the explosives would detonate between them and the Boulder.

"Tchus."

The makeshift barrier exploded, flinging debris and smoke everywhere. While the smoke still hung thick in the air Dr. Heidegger led his team into the alleyway. He would not be divested of his quarry.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky couldn't help looking back as slabs of concrete blocked the alley's entrance. He couldn't begin to understand how it'd happened, and didn't consider that it could've happened for his benefit. He tripped over a garbage can that had been knocked into the middle of the alley, losing enough time to see the wall explode. He scrambled to his feet and ran past another building, then turned right to start the long sprint to his place.

[Boulder]

Watching the strange men file into the alleyway, The Boulder was confident that the extra minute he'd bought for the kid with the scared face would be enough to let him slip away. Wiping the sweat from his head, The Boulder took enough time to look around, realize that nobody else was chasing, but that there WERE other cops, and that they COULD be coming, and decided that with his personal mission clear, now was a good time to get out of there.

The Boulder stooped and grabbed the purse he stole from the fat lady with the money in it, he must have dropped it when he made the big move with the sidewalk, and took off at a jog going the long way around downtown to get to his home, and his grams on the other side of the city. It would be a long walk, but after the adrenaline packed night of things going from bad to worse, and still coming out on top, The Boulder had a feeling that it wouldn't take too long.

Sticking to the shadows of the buildings, The Boulder set out.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus relentlessly pursued Ricky. There was evidence of his movement in the alleyway. A trashcan was upturned.

Klaus smirked. The mutant had been possibly injured. "Ultra-violet scan," he commanded.

One of the team members shone a light along the alleyway. There were foot prints and fingerprints, but no blood.

Footprints were everywhere. But off to the right Klaus could make out a set of footprints very close together. Someone was running. That would be his target.

"Follow down and to the right!"

Klaus activated the GPS in his phone. "Order the units to converge on my signal."

The information was relayed. Soon Klaus would have a brand new mutant to play with.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky wrenched open the back door to his crappy building and ducked inside, slamming the door shut without thinking. He threw the bag of cash underneath what remained of the armchair he'd shot earlier. Satisfied that it wouldn't be found, he stampeded up an aging staircase and flung himself underneath a moldy, ancient bed. It was a tight fit, but with his body mashed into the corner he was fairly well hidden in shadow, but had enough ambient light that he could shoot if he needed. Now...to wait.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

A loud banging sound down the alleyway was all Klaus needed to hear.

He allowed his team to move in front of him. The door was not locked, but its age and the general lack of upkeep jammed the door shut. In seconds the team broke down the door and flooded the building.

The group cleared the building room by one.

"Leave nothing unchecked. Look in every room and under everything."

Klaus waited on the ground floor, listening to the chatter on the walkie talkies. "Shoot first. Bring him to me and I will handle the rest."

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky steadied his breathing as he heard the men enter the building. For cops, they sure were persistent. Boots clunked in measured strides against the floor, and the teenager watched them pass in the hall. Shouts of "Clear!" echoed from all around, even as one of them was inspecting his room.

First he checked the wardrobe, finding nothing but a huge web-building spider, the soldier slammed the door back and moved on. He checked the window and found it barred. He threw back the dusty sheets on the bed and found nothing but old down pillows with feathers sticking up out of them. At last, he knelt and looked under the bed.

The upper half of his head burned as Ricky fired a beam out of his shin, and the smell of his hair burning made the boy heave as he scrambled out from under the bed. Soldiers began to flood in, but the bottleneck was fairly easy to manage. He shot several of them before somebody wised up, decided to ignore his screaming comrade on the floor at Ricky's feet, and threw in tear gas.

Ricky choked and sputtered, shooting a laser from his chest and palms as he cleared a path out of the room. He tripped over someone's feet and tumbled down the stairs, lasers carving up the structure as he maintained them to prevent anyone taking advantage of the moment. When he landed at the bottom his arms and torso were hidden in black light, which dissipated as the wind was knocked out of him. Ricky opened his eyes and looked up at the face of the European who he'd threatened in the store..

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus' head cocked over to one side and he smirked. "Ah, yes. I see that we have flushed out the rat."

The doctor was no longer worried about Ricky's power. The child was suffering the effects of the tear gas grenade he heard up the stairs seconds prior to Ricky's bursting down the stairs.

"And you have hurt yourself with your own incredible power."

He tsked and prepped the needle.

"Remember, power is nothing without control."

He administered the injection and summoned one of his helicopters to arrive in the vicinity. He turned away from Ricky and noticed on the floor an old news paper.

ESU GRADUATION CEREMONY DESTROYED BY MUTANT TERRORIST!

Klaus knelt down and looked at the photograph attached to the headline. A mutant who glowed like the sun could be made out of the grainy photograph.

"This one could prove interesting to me."

He perused the article. No known survivors or bodies found of mutant origin. The doctor frowned. "Shame. He could have been an interesting addition to my growing collection."

He dropped the paper. "Get this one into extended catatonic stasis and have him sent to Warsaw. I want to investigate him myself."

Ricky would be waiting in a holding cell when Klaus returned to his home country. For now he had to prepare a lecture.