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While the Holiday is all about giving, you've just witnessed someone taking. In the middle of a crowded shopping mall, you just saw someone blatantly pickpocket someone else--or maybe, they tried to pickpocket you? You've got a few options--turn a blind eye, inform the victim, chase the thief--anything you feel is right. But still, you've got to do something.
Jericho had braced himself to go back out into the stores and face the insane crowds. He'd still yet to get a few gifts he needed to scratch of his--albeit very small--list, and he didn't actually trust online shipping to get them there in time. Didn't matter if it was still only the second week of December on the calendar, he wasn't taking that chance of having something getting caught up in shipping delays.
Plus he might also be looking for places to hit for some energy draining later on... never hurt to plan ahead.
Jericho just hadn't been expecting to find a need to power up so... early in his day.
It started with a scream, followed by shouts and calls for someone to call the police, security, whatever. A woman--a mother, with small children in tow, one in her arm at her side as she searched her purse one-handed, others staring up at her in confusion as her actions got more frantic. Someone'd snatched her wallet. She was looking around, trying to find the culprit, trying to find help, and Jericho felt an uncomfortable tightness forming in his chest.
A careful scan around the outskirts of the crowd--some of which was starting to pause and linger, attention caught by the rising commotion--and it didn't take him long to pinpoint a few individuals who seemed to be taking particular care to look away from the scene.
The longer he watched them, the more he felt assured his assumptions were right. So when the three guys began to walk off towards another part of the mall, Jericho followed. He kept his distance, pausing now and then to look at displays in shop windows, or look at his phone, but he didn't let them out of his range of sight. He continued to trail them, watching for any signs of concrete proof.
Though he felt no doubt as he tailed them, he needed definite proof to be sure of the crime, and subsequent punishment.
Not that he had to wait especially long. One of the trio passed along a long, wide red wallet, which the receiving one stuffed into his jacket. Jericho highly doubted that belonged to either, given the circumstances. They were making fast tracks out of the mall, and he followed without qualm.
The sooner they got outside, the sooner it'd be more... convenient to... handle them.
The further away from the commotion they got, the more lax the body language of the three. Around his age, Jericho figured, watching them as he slid through the crowds incoming and outgoing from the main entrance of the mall. The early evening air nipped at his skin that wasn't covered by the long, heavy coat he wore, and he followed the growing sound of rowdy youths through the parking lot, further and further from the mall. And the watching security cameras, much to his relief.
Trying to power up without getting caught on camera was not something he'd been looking forward to if they'd gone to the back of the building. This worked far better in his favor.
They were joking, laughing and jeering once they were far enough from the crowds, walking through empty construction zones for some new restaurant or something that would eventually take up the property. Laughing that they'd been able to freak out a mother and her kids so badly, laughing over their gain as they opened up her wallet. Credit cards, cash, a license. Not much, but enough for them to do damage.
Jericho didn't say anything as he lingered a distance away. A flicker of his gaze around the area confirmed there weren't any security cameras, at least not in the near vicinity, and he'd moved behind cover to continue to tail them. With all suspicions confirmed, he didn't waste further time.
He'd rather get the wallet back to the woman and continue on his day without further incident.
It was Lt. Seraphinite who stepped out from behind the cement and wood, standing tall and pale eyes luminous against his dark skin.
It didn't take long for them to spot him. "The ******** do you want?" They were flippant, laughing and jeering at his attire. "Salvation Army's other way, man, ******** off."
"The woman's wallet. Hand it over." His tone was icy, heavy and unwavering. They didn't frighten him. He had strength and speed, he had experience handling these sorts of combatants even before he was enlisted within the Negaverse. Each became defensive the moment the words left his mouth, something he'd expected. One continued to sneer and laugh, while the other two watched with more skeptical looks. Smarter than their third companion.
Seraphinite didn't smile. He didn't smirk. He barely blinked before he charged. He didn't have the speed of a General, no, a near blur versus a normal human, but their shouts were evident enough he'd caught them off guard. His fist met the jaw of the man who kept smirking, blood splattering against the snowy ground as the fallen howled in pain, as much as he could around a likely dislocated jaw. <******** he's one of those freaks!"
The shout came from one of the ones who'd been more cautious, and now Seraphinite could see him pulling out a knife from his waistband. Something mirrored by his second accomplice, the teen realized with a quick flick of a look in the second's direction. <******** off man, go chase those freaky monsters or whatever the ******** you terrorists do."
Seraphinite snorted. For a moment, he wished he had a youma he could summon, to sick on these idiots and educate them in the differences of alliances in this war. But that was neither possible, nor a proper use of time. He pulled from the holsters at his back the two wooden swords, moving to keep them both in his line of sight. One of the guys laughed, relaxing his stance a bit as he eyed the toy swords. "A-are you shitting me? ********... toys? The hell is this s**t?"
"You see what he just did to Jack? I don't care if he's carrying ********' toothpicks, this ain't a damn joke!" The second was right, and clearly the smartest of the bunch. Not that this was saying much. His boots crunched through snow, ignoring the continued huffing and puffing of the one trying to get back to his feet, blood running from the corner of his mouth and a large black and red mark on the corner of his jaw. He gave a muffled scream, and Seraphinite felt sure it was a dislocated jaw, albeit unimportant as he--Jack--charged at him. The smarter of the three shouted out, trying to get him to stop, but Jack tried to tackle him.
It was almost alarmingly easy to sidestep the guy, getting a foot between his legs as he grabbed hold of the arm nearest him. Seraphinite gave it a rough twist back and up, and Jack gave another scream as Seraphinite heard a crunch when the guy hit the ground. He'd definitely dislocated a shoulder now, though Seraphinite wondered if he'd really just used enough force to break the guy's arm. That'd be rather pathetic if so.
During the throw down, one of the others lunged for Seraphinite, and immediately he brought up one of his swords to take the hit of the knife the guy was trying to thrust down at his side. The metal thunked against wood, and Seraphinite twisted the longer blade of his wooden sword to parry the guy, leaving him open for a fist to the gut, his second wooden sword striking him hard in the motion. The man grunted and stumbled back, but his friend quickly took his place.
At least the smarter one seemed to have more of a sense of how to fight. Seraphinite had to focus more on blocking and parrying, keeping more defensive in his movements. Knife, fists, kicks--the guy even head butted Seraphinite, and he snarled, stumbling back a few steps as his vision blurred a bit. ******** hell... he was letting thugs get the better of him.
He was momentarily pleased General Leucite wasn't there, or anyone else for that matter. He could only imagine how that ******** pixie, Spectrolite, would have been laughing and teasing him.
Again the man struck, and this time Seraphinite maneuvered his wooden sword to catch the blade, the metal sinking deep into the wood. Wasn't hard to rip the blade out of the man's hand, following up with a heavy boot-clad kick to the man's side. He could hear that crunch, and knew he'd just broken at least one of the guy's ribs. The man went down, howling himself.
Enough games.
Seraphinite moved quickly towards the remaining third, who looked far paler than he'd been moments before. "W-what the ******** man--" If he'd had anything intelligent to say, the world would never hear it. His voice broke off into screams as Seraphinite plunged a hand into the guy's chest. Seraphinite had put one of his wooden blades away, the second with the knife still stuck in it still in hand. The guy grappled, swinging blindly with his fist and own knife but Seraphinite had little issue knocking them away as he sought the source of the guy's life.
He could have just drained them and left it at that. But they'd targeted a mother, a fact that sat heavy on his mind and tipped the scale of judgement far against their favor.
The guy tried to pry at his arm, tried to pull his hand out of his chest, but Seraphinite's fingers soon touched the tiny prism that was his starseed. The pain sent the man into choking screams, body trembling and saliva dribbling from the corner of his mouth in his panic. Seraphinite could hear new shouts and terror coming from the injured men a little behind him, and he knew he couldn't let this linger too long.
Wasn't like they'd be around to remember the lesson or take it to heart. The prolonged pain was only for his own benefit, and Seraphinite cussed. Not his benefit. That wasn't how he should view it. No. Better to finish it quickly. It was far more humane, far more respectable and reasonable. The senseless suffering and pain... he was no better than--
He pulled the starseed from the guy's chest, the guy's screams getting cut off in a last exhale of breath before he fell to the ground. The light in his eyes dimmed, faded... and then just like that, was snuffed out as Seraphinite moved on to the next. The one with the broken ribs. This one gave more of a fight, and Seraphinite gave him credit. But they'd picked a fight against a Lieutenant, not a General or General Sovereign that could recruit them. Their misfortune.
Seraphinite got behind the guy, and from there again plunged his hand in to the strange, magical cavity that existed within a person's body. The man's form went ridged, trying to punch and smack Seraphinite away from the awkward angle. Not that it worked. Again, Seraphinite found the starseed, and his touch against it sent the man into panicked, pained screams. There were no words as he pulled it from the man's body, watching the perhaps promising brute fall to his knees, then his face landing in the snow. He didn't linger, didn't dwell on the what-ifs of having perhaps kept him alive and brought to a General. Seraphinite had no proof he'd be of use.
At least his starseed would be of use, going to their stores that were devastated when the White Moon Senshi and knights attacked.
The third, the last, his dislocated jaw and dislocated arm, was a sniveling mess by the time Seraphinite reached him. Trying to crawl away, a forming trail of blood in the snow from his mouth. "P-please, please don't, c'mon man, please don't. Ah no, ah ******** this, ah ******** all this--" His words were barely audible, and Seraphinite felt no guilt, no pity, as he reached down and sank his hand into a body. Garbled shouts and screams from the guy were cut off less than a second later, the third and final starseed plucked from the body. Another face hit the snow, and Seraphinite paused to look at the three starseeds in his hand. They glowed and shimmered, far brighter than the thugs they'd been taken from.
Pleased, or at least satisfied that they would be going to his quota, he sent them to the Negaverse, to Negaspace where they were needed, and removed the knife that was stuck in his wooden sword, tossing it to the ground beside its owner. Putting the wooden swords away in their holsters, he flipped over the broken man's body with his boot, not caring that he was leaving dirty, snowy prints on his cooling body. Wasn't like there'd be anything for the police to match it to.
Taking the woman's wallet, he didn't cast the bodies another look as he left. He made his way back through the construction site, walking over his tracks in, and messing them up to ensure nothing could be linked back to him, just in case.
By the time he'd returned to the mall parking lot, he was Jericho Cross again, jogging through the parking lot and cheeks flushed when he'd returned to the mall. Security had been called by then, and the woman still frantic and trying to keep her kids close and in line. The wallet had snow on it, and was damp and dirty by the time Jericho reached the scene. Holding it out, he went to the security officers first. "Found it outside. Whoever took it must have dropped it."
Even if they suspected him of taking it, they didn't say either way. The woman was too grateful to have her wallet back--complete with cards, cash, and everything else she'd had in there.
Jericho gave his statement about where he'd found it, and given the less than ideal shape of the wallet, the security guards took his word, the woman offering her heavy thanks and relief.
It'd be the next day before the bodies would be found, froze and long dead. They wouldn't be connected to the theft, sure, but added into the list of sudden, mysterious deaths--though these ones bore signs of a fight, there was no evidence to the assailant. A proper, silent way to go for thugs and would-be thieves, in his mind. Far more beneficial to the rest of society for them to vanish away, their starseeds now in Negaspace.
And he'd gotten some of his shopping done after all. A win-win day.
{ WC: 2,465 }
