Let's Go to The Mall! (Open to all!)

Yuri was enjoying a relaxing day at the mall. In the last couple of days, she had been on a citywide tour, familiarizing herself with Jump and the many sights. Today, she wanted to do something for herself, specifically shopping. She was browsing the items on display in an accessory store when when suddenly she heard gunshots from outside, followed by indistinct shouts.

She rushed out, quickly taking cover behind a column as she spotted the gun-toting villains in the distance. They were too far to have seen her yet and were distracted by a boy who apparently tried to stand up to them. Brave but unwise. She silently untied her ribbon as her hair aimed at the armed men. From her position, she shot her hair needles at their hands and wrists to deprive them of their guns. She then proceeded to circle around them, using the pillars and other things as cover until she got into a position behind the group, on the opposite side of the civilians. If she was spotted, their attention would at least be away from the crowd. She kept her hair in a neutral and natural position to keep her ability unknown for the moment.

"Elementals. Not my favorite, but you'll do." Hotwire said stepping forward. He had been at the mall preordering a new video-game, when the shots rang out. People dropped to the floor and hid, ducking behind a pillar, his outfit shone to life, covering his body in two seconds. He held his arm out, one of the goons would find himself oddly weaponless.

Hotwire had controlled one of those little rc cars those merchants try to sell in the malls. He had lifted it discreetly to one of the upper arches. His suprcomputer brain calculated the angles, and drove the car off the edge. The angles were perfect, causing the car to colide with his gun knocking it away.

It would also seem he wasn't alone. A few bolts of something disarmed the remaining goons.

"Well. Looks like I'm not as outnumbered as I thought. Not like outnumbering is actually correlated to you guys beating me." He said crossing his arms.

It seemed Yuri wasn't the only hero present. It was nice to see a familiar face as well. From what she remembered about Hotwire, he was certainly reliable and could be counted on. The problem was the other girl. Let's play? While it was impressive that she managed to knock the villains down, so far, the impression Yuri got was that she was not taking this seriously enough. Yuri was not very fond of kids who only thought of hero work as some sort of game. Though she did barely earn a few points for showing some concern for the safety of the civilians.

For now, the villains were still confused and unsure if they should take the heroes on, or run or a mixture of both. If they carelessly tried to move the people, the idea of taking a hostage might come to them. Thus it would be more efficient to take them out quickly before the thought even occurs. While their attention was on the two, Yuri sprang into action. She dashed, coming from the opposite direction. The first to notice was the guy with a flaming head. He opened his mouth to warn his comrades but before he could utter a word, his head and limbs were swiftly bound by Yuri's hair, lifting him high above the ground. He struggled, even attempting to ignite her hair, but fire was not something that would affect it. His icy partner shot ice at Yuri to assist, but a portion of her hair formed a shield to block it. Soon enough, flaming head stopped struggling after being choked out. She then gently lowered him to the ground.

Naturally, the other two wouldn't have just stood there and watched. Yuri looked to see if they were done was well with the remaining criminals.

"Alright light-bulb... let's take care of this." Hotwire said facing off against the lightning haired foe. It seemed like that girl from the park was there as well. Hotwire didn't focus on them to deeply, as he had a foe to defeat. He threw an arm towards the skylight, as his the lightning man shot a bolt of electricity at him. Hotwire held his hand out and rewired his glove computer internally as a couple components from a nearby cosmetics stand flew to him. The electricity harmlessly passed into his computers battery.

"Power levels at critical high level. Discharge required."

"That's good. That means I can do this." He said as a piece of mall equipment on an extension cord flew to him, as it began breaking down. Soon it was just a cord with two small lumps of metal on either end. Hotwire grabbed one end, and the momentum of the original device sent the other at the ice man.

"And discharge." He said as the metal ball and wire wrapped around his arm. Suddenly, a lot of power would flow through the ice man. He would collapse, still breathing, but unconscious.

"Power levels at normal levels." His wrist computer chimed. Now all that was left was for the soccer girl to take the electricity guy.

"And that takes care of that." Yuri spoke her thoughts out loud as the final crook was taken down by the girl with the ball. All that was left was the clean-up and taking care of the injured. In this case, it was just that one boy who tried to stand up to the villains earlier.

Yuri frowned when she saw the girl stomp on the ice but quickly changed to a more neutral expression when she saw that the boy was pulled out in once piece. All things considered, that was reckless and might have aggravated his injury. Either she was really lucky, or she had that much confidence in her control of her strength. It was hard to imagine it was the latter but for now Yuri would give her the benefit of the doubt.

Yuri took out her phone and called the city hospital to send an ambulance immediately. To her surprise, they informed her that one already left for their site minutes ago. The response time of the city was as impressive as ever. They must be really used to this sort of thing. She thought as she ended her call.

"The paramedics are on their way. Just keep applying pressure on the wound. The ice actually helped slow down the bleeding."

Sensing it was already safe, rather than disperse, the crowd had gone into busybody mode. Some trying to get a better look. Others had taken out their phones and were trying to take pictures. Yuri sighed. "I wouldn't advise getting too close, people. It would be quite the situation if any of the villains was just playing possum and got a hold of you. I won't stop you from looking but please keep your distance."

"No pictures please." Hotwire said stepping forward towards the crowd. He didn't mind if they looked, but you could never tell what someone could get from a meta attack just by looking over pictures. He waved his hand, and all of a sudden, their phones and camera's would beep. All of the pictures of their phones would be wiped, and they wouldn't be able to take any photos for half an hour or so.

The swat teams began to pile in and cordoned off the area. A few paramedics made their way through and took over the care of Kevin. Hotwire cleared Yuri and Hope to remain inside the cordon. Ah the pull of being a titan.

"Alright you guys. Great work today." He said adjusting his glove.

Several people frowned as their phones got shut off by the teen hero. Yuri was a bit surprised at this display of cautiousness on Hotwire's part. Was he planning on deleting data from the mall cameras too? She couldn't say she wasn't grateful as she also preferred that her powers weren't too well known, but that felt a bit much, even for her. Still, in matters such as this, it was probably better to trust the Titan. Though if he thought that was necessary, Yuri wondered just what kind of villains were lurking out there that were capable of taking advantage of photos.

"I must say I didn't expect to see you again so soon. Good work on your part too. And..."

Yuri turned to address the other girl but she was already briskly walking away.

"Strange. I got the impression she was a lot friendlier than that."

"Well, it was nice seeing you and working with you again Hotwire. I was actually on a day-off, but I guess evil never rests."

She retied the ribbon holding her hair. Despite being set on fire earlier, there was not a tinge of burns anywhere. It was in perfect condition like always.

"If you won't be needing me for anything else, I'll be on my way too. I was in the middle of shopping, and I'm certain this situation is already in capable hands." She said in approval.

Hotwire blushed a little when this other girl made eye-contact with her."Hold on a moment." Hotwire said. "I need to clear by with you first. Get statements. That sort of thing." He said stuttering, before hearing a familiar voice and turning around.

"Ah. Good to see you again. Things never get any easier." Hotwire said laughing and putting his hand behind his head.

As Hotwire turned to address her, Yuri couldn't help but notice the other girl slip into the crowd and out of sight. Yuri guessed she was probably in the middle of something important when the commotion happened and now she was in a hurry to get back. It was worth points in Yuri's eyes that the girl prioritized hero work over whatever she was busy with. It was good hero attitude in Yuri's opinion.

"I know what you mean. I can't even take a real break without something happening. Of course us heroes can't just ignore trouble."

"By the way your soccer girl gave you the slip. She seemed to be in a hurry."

Before Yuri could say anything more, they were approached by another girl, coincidentally asking about the two girls who were there earlier.

"I think they went over to the stairs to look for their missing friend. I guess that friend would be you."

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