Annihilation
"You're all under arrest!"
David's voice caught in his throat.
"Dude! What the hell?"
Serenade rebuked his operator.
"I know what I'm doing."
The various miscreants continued to gaze up at their captor, confused. They turned to one another, shrugged, and took aim at the mythical S.
"You DARE to attack ME? Fine. Goodbye."
He waved to them, and the ground surrounding the promontory on which he stood crumbled and gave way. The dozens of evil navis plumetted to oblivion. Any that could fly were instantly grabbed and pulled down by others attempting to save themselves. Moe leaned on David's shoulder in front of the monitor.
"Powerful, but not smart."
"You could at least tell me when you have something planned!"
Drillman's operator shrugged nonchalantly.
"Fine, right, you're the leader. It was Serenade's idea, anyway. Ignore the fact that I saved your ass."
"I will!"
Silence.
"Uh, wait."
David's attempt to correct himself was cut off when Cyros burst in.
"GUYS! You won't believe this! The Acid Hackers are on the news!"
"What?!"
"Yeah! Nij is wanted by the cops for assisting a heist!"
"Wow, never thought they'd be so careless," David stated simply.
Moe was quiet. David followed his gaze, then looked up at Cyros.
"Dude, why are you naked? We have Adrienne here now."
"Yeah? What's your point?"
David sighed.
"Nevermind."
The two followed him through a wall of donut boxes to the living room area where the others were glued to the TV. Details were sketchy, but the evening news offered footage of a blonde young man assisting the gun-toting perpetrator in fleeing from the crime scene. No money was taken from the checkout machine, so motives for the shootup were unclear.
"That's Nij, all right," Carlos said. "But who's the other guy?"
David crossed his arms.
"Hm. Probably a rendez-vous gone sour. Arms dealer, judging by that hell of a handgun."
"Should we contact the AH and ask what they're up to?"
The leader glanced to Jon.
"No, if it's big, they'd just lie to us. I don't think they're part of this, anyway. They'd never allow this big of a spectacle if they couldn't all be visible, and striking twice at the same joint isn't their style. It feels like something just between pretty boy and the mystery guy."
"Then what do we do?"
"Not much we can do. Wait it out, act oblivious. See if anything shows up on the Net. See what our sources in the Undernet say."
Moe fiddled nervously.
"Er."
"What?"
"Drill kinda took out our sources back there."
"Shit."
"Fearless leader?"
"Yes, Adrienne?" David responded gloomily.
"Could you make Cyros put some pants on? It's staring at me again."
