X Marks the Spot (Open)

The governor of California had been abuzz in the media for the past few days. Why? Well, if you paid attention to those sort of things, the governor was getting a new car made by the government. It was estimated to be a few million dollars in value; it had an actual performance engine in it and was bullet resistant on pretty much every part of the car. It was given to the governor as a kind of reward for how they had handled the DOMA occupation of the city, and the people were in an uproar about it. Or on the other side, ridiculously supportive of it. Chase countermeasures you'd only see in spy movies like oil slicks and caltrops, even with artificial intelligence defense systems and self-driving features. A person could have a lot of fun in that car.

Red X thought they would have the most fun in that car.

This mission was a loud one for Red X. They usually settled for stealth missions, or ones that could be handled by one person in an incredibly short amount of time, but this was at the state house. It was virtually impossible to do it quietly. At the same time, however, it was impossible to ignore. Shots rang out in the night sky as guards took aim at the thief. Red X teleported over to the man firing, incapacitating and taking them out quickly as they ran into the house. There were a few unconscious guards already on the grounds. This was sure to get military attention if they didn't finish up soon... but since when was that a problem?

Bella didn't pay too much attention to the news, she felt like it didn't really affect her too much, but even she had heard about the James Bond super car that was being granted to the governor of California. She thought it was pretty stupid, but she didn't particularly care about it one way or the other. It was genuinely just by chance that the young woman found herself walking by the scene as she heard gunfire from the house.

Bella turned at the sound and saw a figure drop down on some of the guards and take them out, though from this distance Bella couldn't really tell much about the figure apart from the fact that they were probably wearing black. One way or another this wasn't really a situation that Bella could ignore, so she closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment, then a flash of pink light enveloped her body. When the light faded Bella's red hair had grown longer and turned a bright shade of pink that glowed slightly, and her eyes were now pink with heart shaped pupils.

More importantly, she now had the agility needed to easily vault over the gate. Once she was over she would start running in pursuit of the black-clad thief, thanks to the nature of Bella's powers they would definitely be able to see her coming, but it was just something she'd have to deal with.

Classes were done for a few days, so Alex had taken the opportunity to do some evening patrolling. It had actually been relatively quiet, and he'd been debating on calling it quits for the night when he heard shots ring out nearby. 'Finally, some action! Let's hope I'm not too late to help!'

He raced towards the scene, and was just in time to see two figures, one with (literally) bright pink hair and the other a cloaked shadow, racing into the house. Getting off of his bike, the hero pulled off his helmet and hung it on the handlebar before racing up to the gate, grinning beneath his mask. For a few seconds, it almost seemed like he was going to try to foolishly charge through the steel barrier, but he suddenly crouched, sliding forward a few inches, as large arms made of glowing bronze energy suddenly formed behind him.

As the hero sprung up from his crouch and leapt upwards, the limbs' palms slammed into the pavement, boosting him even further. "WOOHOO!!" Clearing the gate with a loud whoop, he landed inside the yard. He glanced towards the direction the two others had ran before dashing over to a nearby guard to check on them. 'Just K.O.'ed, thank goodness...Time to get to work!'  Giving another reckless grin beneath his mask, 10-Hander charged after the other two.

Red X heard some following footsteps behind them, taking in the scene in front of them before giving their pursuer a quick glance. "Oh, goodie! It always does get a bit boring when someone else isn't involved. I could be in and out in a flash, but now I have a reason to stick around!" The thief turned their attention forward, seeing some guards emerge from the corners with their weapons drawn. With a quick movement, Red X formed a few dozen shuriken and threw them at each guard, running along the wall for a moment as the shuriken would knock the guns out of their hands. And yes, they would be cut a bit, but they were supposed to be deterrents.

Red X dropped their feet into the first guard's face as they dropped their gun, and then springboarded off of them as their head hit the floor, knocking them out. They did a skillfull flip through the air and fired a few heat blasts at the next guard, sending them into the wall. When the thief ran over, they would quickly kick them in the face while they were recovering and knock them out as well. As always, Red X was decidedly nonlethal when it came to operations.

Red X looked back to Bella. "I'd say I'm offended the Titans haven't shown, but they don't seem to do a lot anymore as it is, do they?" They threw an X-arang at Bella halfheartedly. Easy to dodge. The real throw was supposed to be dealing a blow to the back of her head when it returned.

Bella ran down the lawn as she moved to make her way over to the intruder. A voice in the back of her head reminded the redhead that technically what she was doing right now made her also an intruder, but Bella ignored that voice in favour of focusing on the issue ahead. As she ran she heard whooping behind her and turned around to see a masked man leaping the gate. He seemed like a hero, so Bella just hoped that he was and kept running after the intruder.

As she ran more guards came out and attacked the intruder, they were dispatched pretty quickly but at least they slowed the thief down enough for Bella to cross a good amount of distance, enough for the masked intruder to start paying attention to her. Bella scoffed at X's snarky comment insulting the Titans "Pay less attention to the Titans and more attention to the girl who's gonna kick your ass!" she said, bluntly.

When Red X threw their X-arang Bella would easily sidestep the projectile "What're you aiming a-" She was cut off by the impact of the X-arang on the back of her head, catching her off guard and silencing her. Though apart from knocking her head forward and cutting off her sentence the attack didn't seem to have dealt all that damage, indicating that Bella likely had at least some degree of superhuman durability "You're gonna pay for that!"

10-Hander chased after the other two, and though he was slightly concerned about trespassing as well, the rambunctious rumbler was ignoring it for his eagerness to have a good fight and help save the day. (Or night, rather...) Noticing the figure knocking out guards, his eyes narrowed slightly.Well, at least he knew who the baddie was now. Spotting the pink haired girl get popped in the back of the head with a returning boomerang gizmo, 10-Hander gave a sympathetic wince. Catching up, he slid to a stop beside her, Arms raised and ready to tangle with Red-X. "Hope you don't mind if I lend a hand!"

The thief laughed, the distorted voice from the modulator in their mask ringing out to the both of the heroes once more. The thief wasn't using Robin's voice anymore- for whatever reason- but they were still guarding their voice, obviously. They made a witty remark to Bella. It was kind of their thing, after all. "Oh, I've been paying very close attention. Are you one of those magical girls? Between you and the Verdant Gale guy, I'm thinking Japan's making a comeback."

The thief turned down a corridor, and slid to a stop, throwing an X charge at the wall next to them. It was a dead end. Why would there be a dead end? There was no doors! There was a window, but why though? The thief turned to see Bella and 10-Hander coming around the corner, since they were behind the thief. Red X took a bit of a fighting stance, bouncing on their feet. "I was never into magical girls personally, but you're growing on me. You're kind of cute. I like a girl who can kick my ass," they teased.

Bella frowned in confusion as the thief called her a magical girl and compared her to some guy named Verdant Gale. Verdant Gale? Anyone who would call themselves that is probably a pretentious asshole, in Bella's opinion "What on earth are you talking about? You're just trying to distract me, aren't you?" Between this nonsense and the X-arang trick Bella was starting to get pretty irritated at Red-X, but she'd feel better once she got the chance to punch them in the face. It seemed that Bella was not alone in that goal, as the masked hero that Bella saw earlier joined them. Bella gave him a nod in greeting, then focused her attention back on Red-X.

Bella and 10-Hander gave chase as Red-X turned a corner that apparently led to a dead end, that was awfully convenient. Red-X seemed to realise they couldn't really run anymore and took up a fighting stance, but they didn't let the opportunity to tease Bella pass them and called her cute "The feeling isn't mutual." she growled. Their words were somewhat embarrassing Bella and may have flustered the girl under normal circumstances, but when she was ready for a fight there wasn't anything that could distract Bella. Bella raised her fists in a boxing stance and darted forward, looking to cross the distance between herself and Red-X at superhuman speed. If she successfully closed the distance she would throw out a right hook to start things off.

As the other hero gave him a nod, 10-Hander would glance down at her and nod back before giving a playful salute with one of the strange, gently glowing energy arms floating behind him. After they greeted eachother,he ran after Red X with her, grinning as they all wound up in a dead end. Well, no more running around for this baddie...It was time to rumble. And they should be taken care with the both of them. Raising a brow at the flirting, he gave a small snort at the growled response.

Noticing that his ally was settling a boxing stance, his brows raised slightly before he nodded approvingly. She boxed too, huh? Good! As she superdashed over to engage their felnious foe first, 10-Hander fell into a similar stance and followed suit. Though he didn't have the speed of the other hero, 10 hands,most of them big enough to juggle watermelons, raising up into 'ready to knock ya silly' position did have a certain level of impressiveness of their own. And if he got the oppurtunity, he'd make use of them by unleashing a quick flurry.

Red X couldn't help but let out a chcukle when Bella responded to their advances the way she did. Tsundere were all the rage, and it was easy to understand why. But they did manage to catch the thief off guard. They suddenly closed the distance between them very quickly! Why hadn't she done that when she was chasing the thief down? The thief raised their arms to protect themselves, getting smacked back as they slid on their feet. Ouch! "Oof. Could you at least say baka when you hit me?"

Then the next hero came forward. One, two, three- ten hands! That was a neat power. Red X took up a stance of wing chun, parrying only when absolutely necessary by striking the hands in the wrist. "Let me give you a hand." When 10-Hander finished his flurry with a series of simultaneous punches, Red X flickered through them, seeming to become intangible for a moment as they struck for 10-Hander's chest, turning the full-body taser on to shock them for a second. And then would perform a one-inch punch to knock them back, if successful.

As Red-X dodged and parried his punches before throwing out a quip, 10-Hander's eyes narrowed. "Hey, not cool! That's my line, pal!" Though slightly annoyed at the "stolen" quip, he had to admit, this crook had skill...Heh, it was gonna be a fun bout! Well, maybe not, if this worked... 10-Hander tried to lay out the thief with a bunch of blows fired out at the same time, but their opponent ghosted through them.

His eyes widening as Red-X closed in, the multi-limbed battler instinctively snapped his true arms into a 'peek-a'boo' stance, but even if it have saved him from the punch itself the kevlar in his sleeves wasn't thick enough to stop the electric current from getting through. Yelping as he was zapped, 10-Hander weaved slightly, his 'Arms' flickering slightly. They flickered even more as he got hit with a one inch punch. Giving out a woofed grunt, the bold brawler staggered backwards slightly. His 'Arms' flickered once more, and his front foot raised slightly, but then he reaffirmed his stance, raising his arms back up. "H-heh...I gotta admit, that was a shock...But you haven't gotten the ten count out me yet!"

10-Hander responded to Bella's silent greeting with a nod of his own and a salute from one of those weird hand things floating around him. Bella made a mental note to ask him about those when she got the chance. Bella dashed forward and threw a hook at Red-X that sent the thief sliding back, a sight that brought a smirk to the athlete's face, though for Bella to truly feel better it was going to take a lot more punches than that "Shut up. Idiot" she said, in response to the thief's quip. Following that 10-Hander jumped in and delivered not one punch nor two punches, instead he threw a whole flurry of punches at the thief. Unfortunately it didn't work out as Red-X deflected a bunch of the blows before phasing right through them then zapped him, before sending him stumbling back with some kind of punch.

Eager to get back at Red-X for that Bella dashed in closer with her body low to the ground, closing the distance in mere moments. Then she would throw an uppercut aimed for Red-X's chin while rising, hoping to catch them with a blow that would launch them up into the air "Haaaah!!!"

10-Hander took the one-inch punch and tasing quite well. The thief smirked under their mask as they managed to remain steady. "Well good! If that finished you I might be disappointed." That was when Bella came rushing in for another hit. It was still taking a moment for the thief to adjust to their sudden speed, but they were much better prepared for such an open attack now. Bella called them an idiot and told them to shut up, much to the joy of the thief. "Ha, yes, just like that!" They bobbed and weaved, waiting for the uppercut to come in as they shifted to the right, and then would try and snap kick Bella into the opposing wall. The thief believed in true gender equality.

And when they looked back to the thief, they would only see the wall zipping shut in the shape of an X from the charge the thief had placed earlier. They turned around and ran for the door of the room, opening it and running out into the hallway as they looked at a map plan of the house right quick. "How did I get so turned around? It should be this way..."

10-Hander's eyes crinkled in a grin as he got ready to get back into the fight. "Oh, don't worry about being disappointed, Skullky One. I'm too awesome to do that." As Bella went on the offense, the boastful battler approached, waiting for his chance to whale into Red X. However, as the theif kicked his temporary partner into the wall, 10-Hander was distracted from what might have been a chance to get into the fray. His gaze shoots toward the pinkhaired girl, brows furrowed slightly in concern. "Whoa! You ok there, kiddo?"

Once he got a answer, he'd turn back to Red X, fists raising. "Alright, my turn ya little...Eh?" As he watched the wall zip back into place in shock, his jaw dropped with the sound of first a squeaky hinge, then broken glass when it finished dropping. "...Oh no you don't!!" He looked around for any nearby doors that might lead them back onto the path of Red X. he supposed he could just break through the wall, but he'd rather not deal with a irate Governor.

For whatever reason the thief seemed to like it when Bella insulted them and told them to shut up. Was this some kind of humiliation fetish? Were they a masochist? Was Bella only doing them a favour by trying to beat the crap out of them? These thoughts raced through her mind, only to be scattered when Bella was swiftly kicked into the wall by the thief "Ungh!" Bella bounced off the wall with a grunt, concerning her temporary partner who asked if she was okay "Don't worry about me, and don't call me kid."

Red-X made clever use of that little distraction to make a swift get-away through the wall, leaving the two of them behind in that hallway. As 10-Hander started looking around for a door Bella would step forward and work to make a door of her own "Ora!!" she yelled, punching the wall where Red-X had slipped through and caving it in, opening a huge hole that Bella climbed through. She saw Red-X exiting the room and sprinted after them, not intending to give them a break "Get back here, bastard!"