Etienne drove silently down the road through the never-ending darkness. As he sped down the highway, trees, buildings, and people became nothing more than a blur. A large map laid across the dashboard, barely being held by a paperweight as its edges flapped wildly in the wind. Etienne sat low in his seat. He kept his focus on the road as the wind assaulted his eyes.
Etienne rolled the windows up and touched his earpiece.
"What's going on Gabe? You're pretty quiet on that end."
Gabe spoke after a few seconds, "I'm listening to music over here at least, you've been sitting on in silence for the last 20 minutes."
Etienne didn't respond.
"I'm looking for any information on the executives, on GoGo, on Lyle's recent whereabouts, anything! No social media posts, nothing on their credit histories, I've just about exhausted everything. Legal or otherwise."
Etienne kept his eyes focused on the road, "How is that even possible?"
"Either they have a technopath, or this is the most organized criminal operation ever."
Etienne looked down at the map, then back up at the road, "Probably a bit of both."
"I'm worried, Eti," Gabe's voice became distressed, "I mean, what if they have a meta human army? Or what if they have someone on the level of Speed or Star?
Etienne laughed, "Just calm down, Gabe. If they had someone anywhere near that level, they wouldn't be a small time gang on the west coast, completely under the INHO's radar."
"You're right Etienne. I just need to…" Gabe took a deep breath in, "How are you doing with that map? If you're going to be a vigilante, then it needs to be impossible for anything to trace back to us. No smart phones, GPS, or anything else with location tracking."
Etienne looked down at the map and looked up once again, "I'm doing pretty good. In fact, according to this, I'm coming up on it now."
Etienne brought the car to an abrupt stop in the middle of the highway and got out. He walked over to the short railing and looked out at the view.
The highway was on a cliff overlooking a group of similar looking houses off the exit. The group of houses sat near the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.
"The distance isn't too bad, maybe 60 feet. But the drop…"
Etienne took a step back, then another. He continued moving backward, his walking turned into jogging and his jogging turned into running. Etienne found himself on the other side of the highway.
"Everything in my life is a leap of faith. And the buildings are only getting taller. If I can't trust myself to make a jump like this, I might as well give up now."
Etienne closed his eyes before bolting forward. In two steps, he reached his maximum speed. All of his surrounding became foggy. Etienne bent his knees and jumped high into the air, shattering the ground where he stood.
Time slowed to a crawl in the air. Etienne tucked his knees and stretched his arms out like a long jumper. As he began to descend, time sped up. Etienne attempted to turn his body toward a patch of turf, but it was too late. He landed on a lawn chair and shattered it, sending white plastic flying in different directions.
Etienne fought back the urge to yell as he stood up and rubbed his back.
"What the hell was that noise? Are you okay, what just happened?" Gabe chimed in frantically.
"I just jumped from the highway into the Soiree. I didn't want them to see me come off the exit and turn in, so this was the next best solution."
"You definitely went crazy out in Japan! That has to be a 100 foot drop, are you suicidal?"
Etienne rolled his eyes, "I didn't tell you what I was doing until now because I didn't want to hear this lecture. My training did more than teach me how to fight. I'm way more durable now."
Gabe sighed loudly, "Fine, I'll shut up about that. What are you seeing?"
Etienne looked behind at the ocean several feet down. He looked at the ocean side home in front of him and he attempted to peek through the floor to ceiling windows.
"Some very expensive-looking beachside houses. There's a deep pool lined with crystals, and everything is made of glass."
"I always hated places like that. Even with people around, they feel so lonely. Are you able to get in?"
Etienne heard a noise in the distance, like a washing machine starting up. He walked over to the glass door and pulled the handle. The door slid right open.
There were things strewn all over the floor: broken bottles, clothes, and rotten food.
"Eti, keep an eye out for an alarm. If the doors just open, there has to be one."
Etienne bit his lip, "I don't think I need to worry about that. This place is in complete disarray and I'm pretty sure the power is completely off. But this does confirm one thing: there are definitely no meetings going on. It's most likely a trap."
A loud booming sound exploded in the distance and shook the ground slightly.
"I can't tell what direction that came from! Did they just blow up my car?"
The walls continued to vibrate, more violently as each second passed.
"Are they blowing this whole place up?"
Etienne dove through the glass window and jumped into the pool near where he landed. As he brought his above the water, he looked on as a gigantic blue beam of energy demolished the joined houses and turned them into dust. It vaporized everything in its path, leaving little more than a crater.
Etienne's mouth hung open.
Gabe chimed in, "Theres some chatter on an open frequency nearby. I'm tuning your earpiece to it now."
There was a sharp static sound, and then a deep voice with a southern drawl began to speak, "Yes, that was Chef Tim. He fired it as soon as the silent alarm went off. Full power. He destroyed the gloves. Destroyed the gun, too. I'm about to sifting through the rubble now."
Etienne ducked behind the wall of the pool, "You there, Gabe? Any ideas on their whereabouts?"
There was a sharp static sound once again before Gabe's voice came in, "No idea. But they are close. Based on the sound quality, that was a walkie talkie. You can only listen in on those if you're within a few miles' radius."
Etienne jumped up out of the pool. He crouched low to the ground and began to walk slowly. He observed his surroundings, being sure not to step on any debris. Etienne snuck around until he finally away from the houses and came up on the cul-de-sac the houses sat it. In the middle of the road, a man rolled back and forth in pain with his hands between his thighs. Near him was a large futuristic looking weapon with exposed wiring and circuit boards attached to it haphazardly. Smoke billowed out of the opening of the weapon.
Without thinking, Etienne ran jumped toward the man, pulling a few shurikens from inside his gi.
As Etienne went to throw them, someone punched him hard and sent him flying into the ground.
Gabe called out, "Etienne?"
Etienne struggled to get up, scratching his back as he did. He looked down on the ground, his body created an indentation in the road.
"I'm good…just feel like I got hit by a truck."
Etienne stumbled forward slowly. He attempted to look around the area, but his vision was too blurry.
Before Etienne fully regained his balance, someone hit him again in the stomach, sending him flying into the air. That hit was immediately followed by another, this time square on the jaw, sending him flying through the air. He bounced off the ground like a rock skipping on a lake, before he finally stopped near where he originally landed. A muscular man wearing a leopard print jumpsuit danced toward Etienne. He shuffled his feet and jumped from side to side, the wire from his headphones bouncing from side to side.
Etienne grabbed out a single and held it between two fingers. As he moved his arm back to throw it, metal collied with metal and in the shuriken disappeared from his hand. Not too far from the dancing man stood a man in a cowboy outfit, complete with spurs and a large cowboy hat. The older man held up a pristine golden rifle as he approached.
The cowboy screamed out, "You got your wish, boy! You wanted to meet the executives, here we are! Goldenboy, the dancer is Derrick the DJ and my other friend is Chef Tim. Don't worry about introducing yourself, we're going to get you know you real well when we drag you back to the club!"
Etienne stood up slowly and put his hands up, "I'm surprised they let a cosplayer be an executive in a gang. Tell me Lone Ranger, is Lyle apart of your little executive inner circle."
Goldenboy's voice became calmer, "What? Lyle? Why do you care? Do you have a bone to pick with him, is that what this is all about?"
Etienne shook his head, "You ask a lot of questions, old man, you must not know a lot about ninjas. If we don't keep our secrets, who are we?"
Etienne grabbed a shuriken out of thin air and threw it towards Goldenboy. In a small puff of smoke, Etienne exchanged places with the shuriken and now stood right in front of Goldenboy.
Etienne grabbed the barrel of the rifle, "Who do you think is faster, me or your rifle?"
Before Goldenboy could pull the trigger to shoot, Etienne hit him with a strong uppercut, knocking him out cold.
Derrick drop-kicked him from his blind spot, sending him sliding back. Derrick took his headphones out of his ear and reached under his shirt. He pulled a headphone jack out of his belly button and tossed them on the ground.
Music began to play aloud, bass boosted techno music with someone rapping in a foreign language over it.
Etienne grabbed the chains from inside in his gi and wrapped them around his hands.
"I don't have enough experience fighting meta humans. I feel like I'm stronger than this guy, but it's hard to find an opening."
Etienne flew at him with a flying kick. He followed it up with consecutive kicks from varying directions at varying speeds. Derrick struggled to keep with his pace and his dancing and shuffling around the attacks slowly became regular dodging.
The music got quieter and Derrick's dodges became less precise as Etienne's onslaught of attacks continued.
As Etienne found an opening to hit Derrick with a decisive blow, a bullet whizzed by his head. Etienne turned to his left and saw Chef Tim holding Goldenboy's rifle and standing over his incapacitated body.
"Hey!" An unfamiliar voice called out from a short distance away. Further down the cul-de-sac, a man in a mink coat and leather pants stood with his hands in his pockets.
"GoGo…" Etienne thought to himself.
All three of the combatants stopped and turned toward GoGo. He walked carefully, one foot in front of the other the exact same way every time. His ugly snake skin boots barely made a sound as they hit the ground. After what felt like several minutes of watching him walk, he was finally face to face with Etienne.
"So it was just you, huh?" GoGo said dismissively.
GoGo raised one hand out of his pocket and pressed his finger and thumb together. With a deafening click sound, he snapped his fingers.