For Good (open)

[Deleted]

TW: child abuse

Landon went by Reaper for a reason.  His costume was all black.  A black hoodie, black tactical pants.  They were the most comfortable for him to move around, a leave over from the days he'd spent in the military.  His mask made to look like a skull peeking from under his hoodie.  And skeletal hands on his black gloves.  He was on top of an apartment building setting up his sniper rifle.  There'd been a door to the roof he'd been able to lockpick.  Why was he there?

He'd been working at his job at the supermarket a couple of months ago, working the cash register.  A man and child came up to the counter and he had seen some treats in the groceries.  So while he was trying to strike up a conversation with the man, he'd also smiled and asked if the treats were for the kid.  And the kid had said nothing.  The man had said the kid was shy around strangers.  And normally, it would have been left at that.  Landon could take a hint, he wasn't going to force conversation out of a kid.

Except something about the exchange hadn't sat right with him.  So he'd used his time off to look into the family background.  Noise complaints.  He'd made himself surveillance from a distance for a few nights.  Had put a bug in the hallway of the apartment.  Besides finding out the guy's neighbours shook their bedframe like it was their dayjob (and hey they could have been an escort he wasn't going to judge), he was able to hear the conversations the man had with his child.  The parents were divorced, and the kid went to their mum's as a custody arrangement every second week. 

Then one night last week he had heard proof of what he had suspected.  The man was yelling at his child.  Calling the little girl stupid.  Saying she couldn't do anything right.  That she was just like her mother.  And then the next day she spilled a drink and he slapped her. It wasn't the first time he'd heard a slap, but the other times he hadn't been sure it was slapping the kid.  Landon wanted to kill him then and there, but he knew the kid was innocent and didn't deserve to see it.  So he waited until it was time for the kid to go to her mother's. 

And that's why he was setting up his sniper rifle tonight.  Pointed towards the apartment.  If the man came home tonight, he was done.

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Damn it. Who the hell was this guy? Baz cursed to herself as she silently climbed an apartment, and had noticed a figure on a nearby one. She had been planning on robbing one of the buildings -- it was a nice area, they wouldn’t miss too much -- but she wasn’t going to if there was some creep peeping in on the buildings. She slowly and quietly made her way over, wanting to get a closer look to see what they were doing. Baz still stayed on the other side of the roof, though, she didn’t want to get too close.

When Baz noticed the gun, she had a moment to be glad that she was clad in all black, as that probably would make her less of a target. Dressed in a nondescript hoodie, sweatpants, and mask, she rolled her eyes a little at the skull pattern this guy was wearing. Such a cool thing… she thought sarcastically. She hoped he wasn’t a wannabe-hero or something, this town seemed to be overrun with them. Though heroes didn’t usually use guns…

Baz was conflicted. On the one hand, she really didn’t want to get in the way of a person with murderous intent, that couldn’t go well, then again, if things started to get heated she could always turn intangible and get out of there, she wasn’t too worried about getting shot. On the other hand, though, if he did decide to kill someone, that would throw all her plans out of whack. Police would come, security would get increased. Sure, she liked a challenge, but he was going to make things needlessly difficult.

She shook her head, and turned intangible, so she could get closer without making any noise. Baz leaned against the door to the roof as she turned solid again, prepared to slip into the door if she needed to. She cleared her throat.

“Hey, if you’re going to kill someone, do you have to do it here?”

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Landon had sensed the presence before the words, but he hadn't exactly been worried.  He was pretty good in a one on one fight too.  He didn't always need a sniper rifle to kill someone.  He turned around to see the person as they spoke and he sighed.  He tried to think of what to say to this person.  Then when he finally let words leave his mouth, the tone went up and down randomly.  He had a voice changer to cover his tracks.

"Afraid so.  This fellow really needs to die."  He reached in his pocket and brought out the recorder.  And pressed play.  What emanated from the extremely small speaker, was a voice that was just as small.  "Daddy why.  I'm sorry I'm sorryI'msorryI'msorry"  And a slap.  And another.

"This was not the only time this happened.  It will be the last."  He'd come out of retirement for this.  He had been perfectly fine bagging groceries and dealing with irate customers arguing over the price of cabbage.  Why someone would argue over the price of cabbage was another thing entirely, and something he would never understand no matter how many customers yelled at him over it.  This kid needed help.  And he was in a position to help.

"You don't have a problem with the death, what you have a problem with?"

@bazcalimeris

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Baz raised an eyebrow as the person in front of them spoke, voice sounding very weird. Now, she wasn’t one to judge, but in this case it didn’t sound natural, probably the result of some kind of weird gadget. Figured. He sounded incredibly stupid, but hey, if he ended up finding out who she was because she didn’t use an electronic thing to mess with her voice, then that was on her.

She tensed as he reached into his pocket, only relaxing slightly when what he brought out wasn’t a gun. Baz listened to the recording, face set in a frown, not that the man would be able to tell under her mask. Any lingering sympathy for the man set to soon die -- which wasn’t much, honestly -- immediately evaporated as she listened. Killing this guy would be fair, she wasn’t going to get in the way of it. A thought struck her, and she narrowed her eyes.

“I’d have a problem if the kid is still in there. As shitty as the ‘dad’ is, I think watching his head explode might not be the best for a formative youngster.” Baz said, partially dismissing his question. Like she was going to get deep with this guy from the get-go, please.

“What about you? Spend a lot of time killing assholes?” She raised her hands. “Hey, I won’t judge if you do.”

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Landon heard the words questioning whether the kid was still in there.  Fuck it.  Forget the voice changer.  He reached up and pressed a button on his skull mask and turned it off, and his real voice came through.  A tone that was a deep alto.  This person wasn't a BAD person.  Their motivations for being up here were likely not pure, but he didn't expect that from anyone but the goody two shoes heroes in Aegis.  He was not a goody two shoes himself.

"I've been studying the household's habits.  The girl is at her mother's.  I'm not the kind of dick who would kill someone in front of their kid, no matter how awful of a parent they were."  Did he spend a lot of time killing assholes?  Hm...He scratched his chin.

"No, this will be my first kill after becoming a civilian again actually.  But killing assholes is especially satisfying.  One less presence for everyone to worry about.  I notice you avoided my question.  I'll reword it."  He chuckled.

"Do you make a habit of stalking men in skeleton themed outfits on rooftops or is there a reason you're here?  I'm the one here with a sniper rifle so I'm not about to judge no matter what you do."

@bazcalimeris

[Deleted]

If Baz was surprised to see him flip off his voice changer -- which she was -- she didn’t show it. She nodded, satisfied with his answer. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if the kid was still there, but she was glad it didn’t have to come to that.

“I never said you were! In my defense, all I know about you is that you dress up and snipe people. That doesn’t exactly paint me a full picture of your morality.” She grinned underneath her mask as he talked. She could understand that, while she didn’t murder, she did get a certain thrill from robbing rich assholes. She crossed her arms as he called out her evasiveness. She debated telling him the truth, she didn’t really want too, but what the hell. What was he going to do, call the police on her?

“No, no need to flatter yourself, I’m not here for you.” She joked. She adjusted the bag that was over her shoulder, mostly empty right now. Hopefully soon to be full of cash and expensive goods. “I WAS going to, how should I put this, steal? From the places around here, god knows they’re practically overflowing with cash. But, if you’re planning on murdering someone tonight, I might have to find a new area.” Baz shrugged.

“I’m pretty good at not getting caught. However, I’m not looking to make my life harder than it has to be.” She gestured to the abuser’s place. “Although, I have to say, stealing from this guy is starting to look pretty tempting. Do you mind, or will it throw off all your plans?”

[Deleted]

He laughed when she said dressing up and sniping people didn't give her a good idea of his morality. Then he heard her answer and while he was surprised to hear the truth, he could tell it was indeed the truth. It held that feeling, and it was something that you wouldn't say if it wasn't true. He appreciated the candidness of the action. Landon was silent as he thought about what she'd admitted.

"If you want you can take select valuables and make it look like a killer for hire who had taken a bit extra payment. I'm pretty sure he's the kind of guy who wears huge golden rings. I plan to send a recording of what he did to the police. Let them know he was an abuser and maybe they won't look at it as closely." He let out a wry laugh.

"Not that they'd find me anyway. But I've scoped out the place and...hmm..." He had an idea to make it even better.

"If you want we can work together. I'd abandon my sniper rifle entirely and we could go in together while he's sleeping. I might be able to make it look like he died of some sort of medical problem if I focus on him in a certain way. And then as long as we make sure not to leave any trace any theft will just seem like a guy who died in his sleep. Nobody would think twice about missing things in that case."

@bazcalimeris

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Baz raised her eyebrows and felt her hands itch as the man described the soon-to-be-target’s gold rings. The perfect kind of pretentious opulence she loved to take down. She did roll her eyes a bit at his statement, she had absolutely no trust in the police, or any kind of “crime-fighter” for that matter.

“I don’t know, he’s rich, they tend to pay attention to that.” Baz tapped her chin. “But if he’s such an asshole that no one’s going to be looking for him… he’ll probably slip through the cracks.” She grinned at his suggestion, and she grew more excited. This night wasn’t a total waste after all.

“That sounds perfect. I’ll be sure to take things that won’t be missed.” She moved closer to the man, until she was at the edge of the roof, crouched down, looking into his window. She glanced over to the sniper. “You can call me Geist, if you want.” She said, making no effort to hide the fact that “Geist” was clearly a fake code name. She studied the place, making sure there was no movement from inside.

“I’ll meet you in there, try to keep up.” She said, a lilting, joking tone to her voice. With the grace of cat, she started to climb down, and sneak her way across the street to the house, making sure to keep out of any lights.

[Deleted]

She was right.  The police tended to pay attention to the rich.  That was one of the things his father had taught him.  Always kill people who are not going to be missed.  The rich usually were.  But not if they died in their sleep.  He had an advantage there.  He heard her agreement, and then the codename. 

"I go by Reaper."  Then he watched her climb down and sneak across and he arched his eyebrow with an amused grin.  Then he ran across the roof to the fire escape and ran down it.  It made metallic clanks every once in a while from his combat boots but it was still a much better option.  Then he went over to the door of the apartment building and pretended he was calling up to a room.  Instead, he was using a gadget that hacked open the door.  He motioned to Geist.  It was easier this way.  Then he proceeded to the elevator.  If you tried to sneak around overly much it just rang alarm bells when it was investigated.  Easier this way.  And hey, his hoodie from the back just looked like your old average hoodie.  And he'd kept his head down and his hands in his pockets.  There was no way to flag him.  When they got to the right floor he waited for the door to open and stepped out, going down the hallway and picking up the bug he'd left.  If he was going to be here in person, he might as well clean up after himself he supposed.

@bazcalimeris

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‘Reaper’, she mused as she made her way across the street. It was… a little ridiculous. Then again, she’d never heard a codename that she didn’t think was ridiculous, including her own. She arched an eyebrow, sure, the fire escape might be faster, but it still was noisy in her opinion. Oh well, at least he seemed to know what he was doing as he somehow opened the door. She leaned closed to him, whispering.

“If you wanted to do it the boring way, you could have said so.” Baz’ voice was laced with amusement. She would have been perfectly content to do some acrobatics and sneak in some other way, but if Reaper wanted to just walk in, she supposed that was fine.

Baz waited in the elevator, making sure her gloves and mask were on. She didn’t want to be recognized or leave any fingerprints. She trailed after Reaper, glancing around the hallway. When they got to the door, Baz, not to be one-upped by Reaper, nudged him, motioning that she would take care of this.

She took a breath, then turned intangible, and moved through the doorway (though, not before listening to make sure there was nothing moving around inside). Once in, she became physical again, quietly unlocking the door from the inside and nudging it open for Reaper. She didn’t really care if Reaper saw she had powers, she was already a criminal, so it wasn’t like he was going to report her, and if he wanted to he still didn’t know who she was.