Absolute Uncertainties (IC)

[Aoiroo]

The message wouldn't connect because the number Carrie had traded with him was in fact the number to the payphone just outside Sarah's dorm. Not that Carrie was expecting to get a text midday, or to even really think about it while she was out. Even if it was important, she was here to hang out with a friend she hadn't seen in a long while so it would of been rude to be otherwised occupied. Given, even if Sarah had her full attention, she still asked if she knew anything about the muggings or break-ins. She did in fact, one of her classmates in her Racketball classes got their laptop stolen while they were walking back from a night class, but they didn't see whoever it was that attacked them. That probably meant that one of the zoomers was also a mugger. Given, it also came with another story from a friend of Sarah's about a running back who got the tar beaten out of him, and he did see who hit him because they did it several times. This wasn't someone who couldn't defend himself, but the story said that he was taken out by one guy, it was strange.

They got back to the dorm around five and while Carrie promptly crashed, Sarah started reading her new book. Roughly three hours passed before Carrie regained conciousness, and as the sun was starting to set, she let out a loud yawn before climbing out off of the cot and finding Sarah in the same place she had left her. She noticed her stirring, and asked,

"Where are you going?"

Answering with a yawn, Carrie took a look at the time before replying,

"I'm going to use the phone, then go run some errands for my sister before I forget. By the way, you coming to the wedding?"

Sarah looked at her,

"Yeah, I cleared it with my dad, he was wanting to spend some time with Lindsey anyway."

"That's nice."

Walking to the front, she pulled a phone card out from her pocket as well as the number she was given from last night and called up this Supercape fellow. It rang a few times before it was answered,

"Can you meet me outside the chemistry building?"

[Supercape]

"I think I can manage that" replied Supercape, who had given up hope by that point, and had started his own amateur and ineffective investigation. Truth was, he was simply ignorant in the ways of crimebusting.

Atombusting yes, crimebusting no.

But he wasn't to late to learn, even from this young lady. Might be good for him, a bit of Sherlock Holmes.

In a flash, he reformed his tweed jacket and bow tie into the splendid blue and white shimmering costume of Supercape, and with another moments concentration teleported outside of the chemistry building that he had been intently gazing at.

"I'm here!" he continued, down the phone. Rather pleased with himself, this time.

[Aoiroo]

"Wait there then, unlike you, I have to go on foot, and no, I don't want you to come pick me up."

Hanging up the phone, slid into the commons area of the hall. Their was some security, but they're definitely was not a camera in the boiler room. Sliding flat under the door, she only took a few minutes to suite up. Leaving her street clothes hidden under the bucket she slid out the building now in full black and continued against the wall until she on the other side of the building before she started to walk normally to the chemistry building.

She was got there about seven minutes later. Keeping to the shadows, she spotted the rather vibirant colors of Supercape.

"God do you look conspicious."

Letting out a breath, she examined the doors. They were locked, and she saw the light glow of the lights from a security system.

"Okay, so do you have a way in, or am I going to have to disable the system?"

[Supercape]

"Why, of course..." started Supercape, reaching into his pocket for the University key, before realising that he didn't have it, and in any case it would be a dead give away as to his identity.

"I don't" he mumbled.

Blast and damnation I have to be more careful! he reprimanded himself. In any case, it would be interesting to see what this Silhouette lady could do.

"Take it away, madam!"

[Aoiroo]

She was almost hopeful that she wouldn't have to break into a building tonight, but that hope was dashed when he revealed nothing, and then said she'd do it. It wasn't that she couldn't, it was pobably the first trick she learned ever since finding this weird power, but she wasn't fond of breaking and entering. Well, at least she wasn't a cop, so she didn't need probable cause to search a place.

Walking to the door, she flattened her hand and found a spot to slid inbetween the double doors. Moving up and down she found that their wasn't a deadlock between the doors but as she examined the bottoms their was some bars that probably slid up when the proper key card was use to allow proper access or when someone pushed out from the inside. It just made it all the easier really. Going completely flat, she simply slid between the doors. As she regained her dimensions on the other side she examined the little glowing box. It wasn't really much of a security system, and probably wouldn't sound if she opened the door from the inside. Plus their were still cameras going either way, which she couldn't disable even if she wanted to. Moving to the door she pushed it open and looked at her blue companion,

"Come on then."

Walking through the building, they didn't find anyone occupying it, and Sil had given up on the idea that they might find their culprits here. However, as they made their way back to storage room which Sil unlocked by slipping just her hand through and turning the deadlock to open. Turning on the lights, she skimmed around room of full of shelves before she came across a couple of clipboards. Walking over she shifted through them then picked one up and went through the papers,

"This is the inventories over the past couple of weeks."

Flipping through it, she found the date before the break in, then the one immediately after,

"Several quarts of ether are missing, that's a controlled substance how did they miss that?"

[Supercape]

Supercape was impressed. Two dimensional form! His mind whirred with the complexities. No mass in that shape either... she was virtually invisible to his special sensory abilities.

"My dear that was quite extraordinary! How I would love to know how you do that! Does it hurt? What's it like? Is the parabolic of the extrapolated dimension hyperfolded within an n-dimensional lattice?"

"Hmph. Anyway. Yes. Something has been clearly stolen from here. I wonder if the university staff have been complicit?"

"Ether way, we have some more investigating to do!" He smiled and winked at her.

"Get it? Ether way? No?"

[Aoiroo]

Letting out a sigh, she didn't even look up as she responded,

"I'm a metahuman that's how, also no it doesn't hurt, and no."

Looking past the chart she also said,

"Also, don't say that again, or I'm going to hit you again."

Flipping through she noted some other drugs,

"We really have to find these, the ether alone could combust on a hot day and send a building up in flames."

Looking around, she glanced at the clock, it was just a little bit before nine,

"Let's go check some other buildings."

The next hour and a half was mostly them just walking in and out of various buildings checking for things like on lights or a sign that someone other then the janitorial staff had been around. Any comments or jokes made by her very bright companions she didn't really comment on, at the very least none of them were as lame as the ether joke. Walking up to the building dedicated to nursing, the were about to get to the door when Sil pushed him back around the corner,

"Wait here."

Walking around the corner in her flat form, she meddled into the wall in her dark costume in the shadow. A gangly boy in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with the words Substantially Hollow, walked to the door and slid a key card to get access to the building. Moving back, she met Supercape,

"Someone's here."

[Supercape]

"Blimey" replied Supercame, fidgeting. He reached momentarily for his bow tie, before realising that he had reformed it into his splendid shimmering blue costume.

"Erm, what do we do now? I'm not much good at this stealth business." It would be even worse if he activated his shimmering quantum force field, as he was tempted to do. He still had the bruise from the day before.

He did wish his companion would lighten up, it would help relieve his own mounting anxiety. "Erm. I hat to ask you flat out. But are you able to spy on him?"

He instinctively winced and held his hands over his head, excepting another admonishment.

[Aoiroo]

She didn't reach up to hit him for the rather lame pun, mostly because it was an actual expression.

"I can spy just fine, but if I'm caught, and it's another zoom user, I'll have some hard time dealing with them by myself, and I can't take you flat with me, one, because a bright blue figure held up against the wall is noticable even when flat, and two I can't take anything that isn't naturally to change forms with me. I'm not really sure how you'll get into the building if I go up ahead."

[Supercape]

"Right then", announced Supercape, "I guess we need to apprehend the youth and convince him of the error of his ways. " He cracked his knuckles.

"I'm sure the poor boy is just misguided. A stern lecture on civil responsibility will do the trick. It stands to reason he will see the error of his ways and capitulate if we confront him... thereby revealing the underlying malaise!" he twirled his finger with an authoritarian air and drew himself up to his not unimpressive full height.

"What do you think, young lady? I'm sure you, as a woman still possessed of vibrant youth, have insight into the matter. "

[Aoiroo]

She pressed a single finger on her forehead before saying,

"We haven't even confirmed that he's doing anything wrong yet."

Looking at him quietly she said,

"You know what, I'll go in, and if I'm not back in five minutes, or you have any reason to suspect that something is amiss, like maybe yelling, random crashes or gunshots then you can come on in and give him a right good talking too."

She held up air quotes on the last too words before she slipped around the side of the building then went right inside.

She glanced around the first floor taking a look down the hallways looking and listening for the boy, then decided to head to the second. On the stair case entrance her eyes caught the light of a room just down the hallway and she moved quietly, getting close to the door she caught the middle bit of the conversation.

"sure this stuff is safe? I heard some really nasty things."

She didn't know who to attribute the voice too, because she didn't dare take a peek while the lights were still on.

"I did some preliminary testing, and though it doesn't last as long, their has been no record of heart failures and all the subjects come out just fine."

The other person seemed convinced,

"Alright man, hook me up."

It was a little before that Sil stared to move, reaching her hand around the door frame she came in low and quiet as she reached around for a light switch. Very slowly and quietly she sneaked around until she was up far enough and she found it and flipped it. With the lights shut off, Silhouette dashed across the room in the few seconds they were blinded by the lack of light. Running across the room, she had to slow down to avoid bumping into the tables and chairs scattered across the room. The guy holding a needle was the first to recover from the shock and effectively slide a chair into Sil's feet, she cleared it with a leap, but was too distracted as the guy found the vein of his friend and inserted the needle.

[Supercape]

Supercape was less than impressed with himself. Damn it, when was he going to be a hero? Heck, he was meant to be a SUPERhero. He had the cape to show it. Instead, this young woman with a ragtag costume was showing him what real. Mettle was.

He paced around a bit, listening intently for any of the aforementioned sounds. When he heard the crashing of chairs, he burst into action. Activating his quantum force field, and r

unning into the room in a flurry of textile splendour he pronounced "Halt, citizens!"

[Aoiroo]

Well in all his blue glory, Supercape came just in time to be bypassed by a blur in a concert t-shirt. The other dude who was wearing a similar outfit plus a lab jacket tried to duck under the table but Sil grabbed at his legs and pulled him back. Looking back at SC she said,

"Go catch the speeder."

[Supercape]

Supercape barely saw the blur, but saw him he did, and that was all he needed to excite a few key atoms and turn the blur into a shining blast of radiation.

The youth careered into a wall, stumbling, disorientated from the heat and power of the blast.

"Halt Citizen! Your life is in immediate peril if you do not desist. Capitulate now and medical attention can be arranged that will improve your chances of survival!"

He was rather pleased with himself!

[Aoiroo]

Sil was a bit busy with the young dealer in a lab coat. He struggled and kicked her in the face but she managed to slide by his foot and grab it so she got better leverage as she pulled him back and forcing him face first on the ground while she wrapped and tied his hands with medical tubing. He struggled a bit, but she managed to keep him down as she looked up to see Supercape having zapped another zoomer,

"Hurry up and restrain him."

The zoomer was still a bit woozy after the hit and had to take a second to get back up and get his bearings.

[Supercape]

"Err... yes... restrain..."

Damn it, he wasn't a brawler. He wasn't a young man. Or woman, come to that. He didn't think he had much chance in a wrestling match. Of course, he could restrain in other ways, no he though about it.

Concentrating on the air molecules around the youth, he nudged in obscure ways. The bonds between them grew to phenomenal strength until, with a sucking sound from the vacuum, they formed into a diamond hard solid shell around the surprised youth.

It took a little concentration, but it would hold. And the glittering shell looked impressive.

[Aoiroo]

Looking up while she down onto her captive, she saw the crystalized bonds surround the young speeder, and found herself simply staring at the spectical,

"Holy sh...."

Her attention to this event as well as her speech was cut off by a slight buzzing under he left thigh. Moving it slightly she flipped up the targets lab coat to find a cell phone with an unlisted number. The sound of it seemed to make the dealer more ambient to try and stop her from answering, but he could not move himself from his restrained bonds. Instead he started to shout profanities that Sil stopped by grabbing some cotton balls from the table she had knocked over on the way in and stuff them into his mouth. Letting it ring a couple of times she picked it up and held the phone to her ear,

"Good evening."

There was silence before the person on the other line said,

"Who's this?"

"Ms. Flourance Blots, how may I help you today?"

There was a few seconds of hestitation in the background, as well as some coughing as the young man under her tried to spit out the cotton balls,

"Cut the carp and put Danny on the line?"

"He's a bit tied up at the moment, can I take a message?"

They person on the other end just hung up after that, looking at the number, she quietly dialed 911 again and waited for the response.

The ambulence and the police came soon after, they entered the building and found the rather peculiar scene of the two heros restraining their respective captives. Though the sight of the casing that Supercape had prepared for his captive was interesting, their was flat out laughter of the sight of Silhouette sitting with her legs crossed on her's while she was flipping through a medical magazine she had found on the floor. Both captives were cuffed, however, the zoomer who was coming off of his dose was immediately taken to an ambulenced to be properly monitored in case his heart failed.

When it was all said and done it had been a rather short matter, but there was a few things that were still missing from the entire picture. Pocketing the phone, Sil walked over to Supercape and said very simply,

"I'd only seen a couple tonight, and they all seem somehow related, but I do have to ask, how many powers do you even have?"

[Supercape]

"Well", pondered Supercape. "One, really. It's just I use it in different ways. I suppose I just see atoms, forces, and things you probably wouldn't understand, and when I see them, I can... nudge them."

He shrugged. "E equals MC squared and all that. A lot of energy from a small effect. What you saw back there was just altering the atomic force between some key air molecules. Hey presto, solid air. "

"What I can't do, however, is read minds. And I'm not sure we are much closer to busting this thing. Unless you can read minds. Why, I don't really know what you can do other than turn flat and fight like a banshee!"

[Aoiroo]

"First off, that is an off mythology reference, banshees don't fight, they just wail to notify a family if someone has or is about to die. Secondly, if I could read minds I probably wouldn't be here, I'd be applying to appear on jeopardy. Given, I probably wouldn't get much past the scanners, but yeah, flat is all I got. It's not fancy, but it can't backfire on me spectacularly, your's however, well I'm glad it's you who has it and not some nastier folk. Good thing you can fly too, because no one's letting you through airport security any time soon."

Atom control, there were simply a ton of applications for a power like that, a lot of them were less then pleasant and less then legal, but there was still more then that. Well most people never seemed to ask heroes how they do the things they do, because otherwise everything that he does is just what is viewed as the standard package of what a hero should be able to do if they want to take out a supervillian, though that never stopped Geckoman.

"There is something bigger here, I'm sure, this for example."

Reaching up she held up the phone with the unknown number,

"It'll require some investigation, but they'll probably back off the college scene at least in North End while the heats still on."

Slipping the phone into one of her many pockets,

"Anyway, I haven't introduced myself, at least not properly,"

She held out his hand to his,

"My handle's Silhouette."

[Supercape]

Well, it liooked like his partner in investigation was finally warming up a little, despite her initial brusqueness.

"Pleased to meet you" he replied, holding out his hand. He didn,t fancy a discussion on the merits of banshees as a turn of phrase.

"Handy ability. Don,t use it right now, though, you might take my fingers off!" He chucled, shaking her hand as warmly as possible.

"I,m not much of a detective to be honest. Any ideas how to stamp this out for good?"

[Aoiroo]

Shaking his hand she let go and shrugged,

"I can't expect you to be one, this isn't much of an area for detective work. Colleges aren't places of mystery, there's security cameras in every building, locks on every door and regular patrols by trained officers. The only reason anything really happened is because the focus for colleged aged crime is almost always off campus on the weekends when everyone is out clubbing or visiting their parents."

Looking down at her pocket, she let out a sigh,

"Anyway, the source of this is probably more from my side of town. I heard a little of the conversation before I busted in, it seemed that they were making a new formula of zoom. The seizures were probably an alternate side effect inflicted for this new product."

"We can try to take this out, but drug rings are tricky especially if this connects to the mob, then it gets even trickery. The college crowd is always a big market for zoom dealers, if you keep up patrols you can make the area no longer profitable, and they'll probably retreat from North End with less fuss. Just make sure you call the ambulences ahead of time, we were lucky that this was an alternate formula, because if you knock out zoomers on the regular stuff they're heart can stop right when they get knocked out."

Walking around the classroom she found a desk and opened a drawer, locating a pencil she started to scribble on a piece of paper she tore from a larger one she got from one of her pockets before handing it to Supercape.

"Here's my permenant number, call me if you need some help or if you find any leads on your own. Just don't do it if your about to pass out in an alley because I need at least an hours notice to get here otherwise your better off calling the cops."

[Supercape]

"A new formula for Zoom?" pondered Supercape, scratching his chin. "Well, I guess you cant stop the chemist's progressing in all aspects of their field. But I don't like the sound of the mob getting involved. "

He took the heroines number, with genuine gratitude. For all her brusque nature, she was a genuine heroine, he concluded. He could take a leaf out of her book.

"I'm not sure I know how to crack it, but that dosen't mean I wont. And, since you have given me your number..." he responded in kind, giving her his own special Supercape number.

[Aoiroo]

Taking the number in kind she slid it in one of her pockets before glancing at the clock.

"Getting late, well later, and the police will probably be sweeping the campus so I guess we can say adue."

Reaching forward, she grabbed his hand and did a quick shake,

"It was nice meeting you, nastiness aside, though if I catch you drunk and in costume again, I will probably have knock a good bit of sense into you, and maybe one or two teeth out."

She gave him a smile that could not be seen behind the full cloth mask,

"Just kidding."

Letting go, she turned towards the door, and made her way to the steps. It was comforting that there was someone else in the area. Now there was only the task of her getting back to the dorms, hopefully she wouldn't bump into anyone else in costume, or Sarah for that matter, things were awkward enough as it is.

[Supercape]

With a jaunty salute (well, he didn't know what else to do), Supercape flew off and when in position, teleported himself back to his appartment. His clothes reformed into a comfortable set of evening wear ones.

He gingerly fingered his bruised ribs. Shields up, next time - as Captain Kirk would say.

Damn these kids, he couldn't keep up with them - Zoom or no zoom. He walked into his study, kicked off his shoes, and let out a sigh. After a few moments he started a crossword. Damned if he wasn't going to have a few hours at a slower pace!