Salty Restart (Energy)

It was a rather dark and gloomy day in Jump City, not at all like the typical weather. Dark clouds loomed above the city, pouring down was a light shower upon everyone and everything below. But still, people couldn’t hide away indoors, and not confront the weather. No, people had jobs, things to do, and so despite the unpleasant weather there remained a lot of people out in the streets. The docks were particularly busy, boats having arrived in the Morning were doing business, trading. But of course, with people working their socks off to earn a living, there were others who chose a darker path, and these types of people lurked the docks during the day.

One merchant was located near his boat, older than most, nearing retirement. He was loading various crates of goods onto his boat in the pouring rain, but of course, he was rather slow. It was all going swell, but then he was approached by a group of gentleman. Discussions were held, not of a friendly nature mind you, as they had no desire to do business. These gentlemen were decked out in similar attires, a few of them also wielding weapons like baseball bats, knuckle dusters etc. Before long, the perhaps ‘leader’ of the group struck the merchant with a right hook, impact felt as he was wearing knuckle dusters. The merchant collapsed to the ground, maybe not out cold, but near enough. The group stepped over him, some boarding the boat, others not as they searched through the goods he had.

But unbeknownst to all, was there a hero on his way; Manic. He had disappeared for a while, for a lengthy time indeed. He hadn’t been seen in a long time, and for good reason. He left Jump City, seemingly walking out on the then Teen Titans. But now, he was back. Well, returning. Off out at sea was Manic, running across the waves at near 700mph – he only decided to return minutes ago. But already was he nearing Jump City. Nobody had any idea, nor Manic of the situation he’d be confronted with upon arrival. On the horizon a blur could be seen racing towards the docks. The leader of the gang saw it, well, he saw something off in the distance and it caught his attention as he had stopped barking orders. But alas the blur was right up in their faces, the sheer wind of the travelling force had knocked a few of the goons to the ground. But Manic ran round, returning to confront the lot.

“Heyyy… is, that your boat?”

“Is that our boat? Who're you? The boat police? Of course it's our boat, what? You think we’d just stolen it or somethin’?”

“Kinda, yeah”

Brutal honesty.

“Really? An’ I thought you registered heroes would be a bit nicer now, guess not. Oh well!”

“Regist-“

Manic had been caught slightly off guard as the guy had drawn a gun and fired three shots towards him. To Manic, everything simply slowed down as he watched the shots slowly move towards him. Weird! He ducked from right to left, flawlessly avoiding the shots before raising his voice.

“YOU COULD’VE HIT M-… that was the idea… wasn’t it?”

A nod, the goon fired another shot again; this time towards the foot of Manic. Manic avoided the bullet of course, but in dodging it had knocked him off balance and he fell into the water as a result. A few orders were yelled by the ring leader, as the group began quickly loading up the ship with a few last goods. The leader and about four of his comrades hopped on the boat, and were off, an escape! Whilst left behind were around eleven other men, to search and deal with the hero – with more on their way. Oh dear! A Salty Restart to Manic's life in Jump City.

The boat suddenly did a u turn and sped up heading to the dock crashing into it and exploding. A large orb floated where the boat was and landed a female figure leaping out of it with a pistol in one hand and a glowing blue sword in the other. She instantly crouched down spin kicking 1 of them that was left and shot the other 3 in the knee caps as she stabbed the sword in the one she tripped leg then bashed him unconscious with her pistol and put her pistol back in her boot and her sword shattered like glass fading away as the smoke cleared and Jenny walked over to the end of the broken dock holding her hand out to Manic. Her hair was now short and black, her ears cut down to even shorter than a normal humans, and there was a large scar on her stomach. "Long time..." She said as she'd help him out of the water a few hidden thugs racing out and over to them.

As Manic resurfaced, he was grateful for any help out of the cold sea. Though he didn't expect to see Jenny at all. Still, he accepted the help and grabbed her hand as he was aided out of the water and onto the deck. He was drenched, his clothes darkened due to the water they had absorbed, and Manic also had some seaweed in his hair - this wasn't a good look for him, not at all. Manic clambered to his feet, quickly throwing the seaweed away as he regained his footing.

"You know, I don't normally go for an unexpected dip in the sea"

Off to one side was the ring leader, and the men he had taken with him aboard the boat. Orders were being yelled, as it appeared they were removing the goods to take elsewhere, towards an abandoned warehouse - probably their base of operations or something. On the roof of the warehouse were a few more thugs, operating machine guns as they were covering their men should anyone approach.

"You wanna deal with Captain Crunch? I can take these guys..."

Manic would ask Jenny before looking around the docks around him. Many thugs had surrounded the troop, with only bad intentions in mind. Without waiting for a response, Manic burst forward with speed. He ran from where they were to solid ground; thugs in the way had been blown back by the speed, many falling in the water themselves. Manic stood at the end of the pathway he had cleared for Jenny, a bow as he gestured her to head this way. Though, he had many more to deal with before he could join Jenny in assaulting the warehouse.

"Never would have guessed." jenny said in response to his comment about not usually swimming in the sea like that. She looked a look around at the men who came out and nodded once. "Sounds like a plan to me."

She said as she waited for him to clear the path as she run through into the warehouse bringing up her shield just in time to block bullets that they shot at her. Jenny the started to fly up as she mad a big sword in one arm and she landed in front of three of the men lowering her shield as she swung it cutting the three in half. a bullet grazed her back slashing it making Jenny flinch in pain as she reformed her shield.

Manic watched on as Jenny headed in towards the Warehouse. Still, there were criminals out here still to deal with, which Manic was introduced to fairly quickly. As he looked back towards the dock, he found himself needing to duck as one criminal swung a baseball bat his way. It missed, of course.

"Whoa... might wanna watch out where you swing tha-"

Another swing, and Manic had stepped back quickly to be out of range.

"I'm the one who fell in the water, I should be the guy here who's pi-"

Interrupted again, as the thug swung the bat towards him another time. This time Manic dashed away, ending up behind the thug who didn't seem pleased. He threw the bat away, gritting his teeth as he turned to confront Manic again. Here he clenched his fist, a wild right being swung in Manic's direction. Manic caught the arm of the thug, twisting it around behind the criminal's back to render him useless.

"In the water you go!"

Manic would simply push the thug into the water - he actually fell on top of one who was in the process of clambering out. Manic turned around again, and had a guy darting towards him with quick jabs. Manic dodged from side to side, a smirk upon his face. The guy then burst towards Manic with speed, but the quicker Manic stepped aside, sticking out his foot. The thug tripped, and stumbled into a barrel of fish... ew.

"...not a big sushi fan myself"

Anyway! Enough of the small talk, it was time to get inside and lend a hand. The door of the warehouse broke open as Manic had sped through, tackling a few thugs with him. They remained dazed on the floor, whilst Manic quickly scanned the scene to see if he could spot the ring leader. He didn't find him, but was confronted by one of his delinquent friends who stood several yards away from Manic, wielding a pistol and firing towards the speedster. Manic would step towards him, slowly, quickly dodging from side to side as bullets were fired.

"Any chance you've seen this guy... he's about, 6'2'', bit of a belly on him... no?"

Manic was now just a yard away, and now utilized his speed to better effect. Within a second, had Manic grabbed the gun and ran behind the shooter who he then thumped in the back of the head with the butt of the gun, causing the shooter to fall to the floor. Not far away was the sound of a car starting, must be the guy they're after. At that moment several of the men from outside ran in to confront the heroes, hence why Manic called out to Jenny.

"Mind dealing with this lot? Got a ride to catch"

Forget an answer, the speedster sped off.

"You got it!" She shouted to him thankfully manic took out quiet a few gunmen allowing jenny some breathing room. Jenny ran at one of them lowering her shield and jump kicked him in the face with both her feet while blasting out energy blasts from her feet making 2 large cradors in his chest as he flung back into one of his team mates the two falling over the railing and hit their heads hard on the floor as jenny lands on her hands which sh pushed off of to do the same move against 2 others who ran up to her. As she neared the ground she whipped out her pistols.

Once she started to slide she shot thorough the gaps in the railings shooting up the men on the other side. Jenny slid to a stop the area now clear of the thugs. She sat up looking at her bullet count having 2 bullets left in one of her pistols. She put one of the bullets in the other pistol just in case before putting them back in her boots. she hopped over the railing landing casually on one of the thugs as she pulled out her laptop hacking the police station to re route some of the officers to the ware house as she walked casually on and past the taken down thugs and out of the ware house putting it back when she got outside.

It didn't take long, not long at all for the speedster to catch up the 'getaway' car that had been speeding through traffic, ducking and weaving between cars. Manic had caught up, running alongside the vehicle. The ring leader seemed rather angry, shouting at the driver in the seat beside him. Manic kept up the pace to stay on level with the van, managing to tap on the window with his fist.

"Mind lowering the window a bit? Just wanna tal-"

Whoa! Close one! Manic had to move himself out of the way of a car that was driving in the opposite direction. This really wasn't safe. Alas Manic returned, and knocked on the window again in another bid to get the driver to wind his window down. No luck, but this could not continue. Manic smashed the window with his elbow, then unlocking the door from the inside. The door swung open, and Manic reached in, pulling the driver out and onto the pavement. He rolled frantically, coming to a halt on the sidewalk just in front of a police officer - perfect. Meanwhile, Manic hopped into the car as he now took over the responsibility of driving. It wasn't easy, especially with the ring leader trying to hit him. But, Manic hit back, and harder. One right hook stunned the guy, who slumped back in his seat. When there was an opportune moment, Manic had put on the breaks and brought the vehicle to a stop. A police officer ran over to see what was up, but of course, Manic could only spare a few words to explain the situation.

"This guy, thief, arrest him, trunk, stolen goods, got that? good!"

Whether the officer got that or not, who knows? Manic didn't stick around to find that out. He instead sped off back towards the warehouse to make sure Jenny had things covered. She did, as it appeared police were arriving on the scene now.

"Glad we got that taken care of"

Manic would say, arriving on scene, stood beside Energy Warrior.

"So... how've you been?"

They didn't exactly get time to talk earlier, now seemed a much better time.

Jenny looked to him as he arrived straight faced. "Been better..... you missed a lot while you were gone but if anyone asks... tell them your registered..." she whispered the last part to him. As a registered her it was her duty to protect the city and stop all unregistered heroes and arrest them one of those 2 tasks she has been doing.

A cop walked up to them "Excuse me is he registered?" Jenny rolled her eyes at the cop. "Of course he is no unregistered hero would be dumb enough to stick around the scene after taking down something this big and espeshially talk to a registered hero afterward." "are you sure I haven't seen him around be-" she held up her hand in his face.

"Sir as you know know new heroes come in all the time and register and you cops take 2 hours to look up each one you don't know so please just take my word so you don't waste our time that we could be using to stop more villains" he blinked and nodded "r-right sorry carry on." Jenny looked to manic and motioned for him to follow her away from the area.

For that whole conversation there, Manic remained were he stood rather dumbfounded. That one criminal mentioned something about registered heroes, then Jenny, then the cop. Clearly there was something he was missing here, still. It paid off to for once just keep his mouth shut. He just watched everything unfold before his very eyes, and by the end of it was none the wiser. "...okay...". As he saw EnG gesture for him to follow, that he understood and began following after her. Though now, now he'd talk. "I really, have no idea what that was all about... wanna fill me in?".

Jenny sighed there had been a lot of things that happened since he was last here and honestly she left the titans before him and since for a while the titans were missing in action she wasn't too sure what all he missed so she figured giving a brief amount that covered the major events in the city might work for now.

"Well a group called Hive took down the aliens, took over the government, made it so all heroes must register or stop heroing if they don't do either they are arrested, a bunch of newbie heroes are starting to pop up thinking if they have a costume they can be a hero generally which annoys me to no end, the titans split up into registered and unregistered teams then I think the unregistered split up into unregistered and a mix between the registered and unregistered, uuuh oh I started a team but my team mates are usually missing in action i think i heard that yang lost an arm i dunno what went on there, I made an album oh and now California is its own country and the russians are at war with us and the united states is staying neutral, I think that's it."

"Well... that makes total sense". Manic didn't understand it all really, it was a lot to digest in such a short space of time. Titans this, Titans that, Yang losing an arm... Russians?! It was enough to start a migraine. "So... I can't like... help anyone, unless I'm registered? What?!". This all seemed like busy work, unneeded red tape to make someone feel useful. "Things seemed a lot less complicated before". Amen brother! "Still not totally sure what that cops problem was before... think he'd be happy we'd just done his job".

"Technically you can't but you can people do it all the time but you'd then be on the run from the cops, it's really stupid but apparently it helps make the civilians feel safer by knowing who we are, right now I could walk around without my mask and people would still know that I'm energy warrior and vice versa. They also pay for everything a registered hero needs thus making more newbies that just get in the way want to suddenly become a hero cause they don't have to work for anything." she listened to what else he had to say as they walked before saying. "Well like I said registered heroes and cops are supposed to arrest unregistered crime fighters but honestly I never do hell I some times even help them get away cause i honestly find the getting arrest part dumb since the majority of the unregistered heroes know what they are doing and work hard for what they need to have. The worst part is once you register by telling them your powers name and a sample of your dna you can't unregister."

"A sample of DNA? Like, why? What for?". It was like assuming everyone was a 'bad egg' before they had done anything wrong. Surely powers, name, stuff like that was enough? Either way, Manic ain't biting. Plus! Maybe some psycho-lady wants to have meta-babies or something! Forget that! "Think I'll hold off on the ol' registering myself, then... at least till I see a point in it. Not like there's anyone around who can catch me". When you run at 700mph, it is fair to assume that no-one around can catch you. Well... the Flash could, but he's not around. "Guessing you're registered? ...did you at least get some sort of thank you basket for signing up?".

"Nope nothing other than some cash to pay for some hero related stuff" she lit a cigarette smoking it as they walked "And I dont know why I never thought to asked when I joined what feels like years ago. and so be it but be careful I know you are fast but it only takes one distraction and a bullet to take you down with a good shot and luck."

"A lot of luck". Not to sound cocky, well, maybe a bit. But Manic was supremely confident in his ability to avoid not getting caught. Hasn't been caught so far, so, maybe there's a reason to be cocky. "One lapse in concentration, and I could be on the sunny shores of somewhere in Spain, taking in the beach views". One can imagine. "Sounds from what you said, out lil' Titan group has been falling apart... shame that, guess I underestimated the significance of my entertainment value". That's why they have split, right? Because there's no-one else there to provide the comedy.