ALTERNIVERSE: Chapter four

It's a quarter past four and in the Town of Helmburgh, Franny, a twenty-five year old philippian women with curly brunette hair and hazel eyes, wearing a black sweater over a white t-shirt, black heeled boots and blue jean, walks out of the corner store with two small bottles of soda and pack of candy. She walks down the sidewalk to a black van parked in an alleyway between two stores. Once at the side of the van Franny opens the sliding door revealing the inside of the van, equipped with high-end surveillance equipment.

"I hope you like sprite? They ran out of seven-up." Franny says handing the bottle over to her accomplice in the driver's seat.

James, a twenty-six year old caucasian man with straight brown hair that reaches down to the neck and light brown eyes, wearing a darkened green coat that is zipped up along with a black pair of jeans, takes the soda with a soft look of disappointment. "I guess sprite is fine. Really wanted that seven-up though."

"They're literally the same drink, just a different brand. We've been over this before." Franny states as she takes a sip of her Fanta.

James turns around in his seat and looks at her with disgust. "They're not the same. Seven-up is clearly the superior of the two and should get the respect it so rightfully deserves. Sprite is just overrated."

She can't help but chuckle to herself hearing his protest. "Whatever you say." Franny takes another sip of her drink when the van gets a ping from The Magicians communicator. "Its about time." Franny spins around to face the computer setup next to her and presses a button to her right. "Hey, Freddie, have you got something?"

From up above on the roofs of the stores and apartment buildings, Freddie now  in his Magician persona, looks down at crowds walking by on the sidewalk at hispanic man with a hat looking down as he walks. "Yeah, I think I finally have visual on our perp… do people still say perp." He thinks about it for a second before shrugging it off. "Anyways I believe I found Jose."

James walks into the back of the van to look at the computer screens with Franny. "Hold on, let us check the cameras in that area to get a facial recognition scan on him."

"Got it, I'm on south street at the corner of Saint Louis. I'm going to get a closer look as well." The Magician takes a couple steps back from the edge of the roof he's on. Once back far enough he gets down into a running stance, his body begins to softly glow blue. The Magician takes off running, quickly jumping into dive and as swift as the wind, morphs into a common blackbird.

Franny and James work together to hack into the cameras on the street given to them by Magician. After a few seconds they have images of the people and cars passing by. "Awesome! We got eyes on the location. Stay close we're going to run facial scans now on the crowd." 

The Magician flies high above the streets below him but makes sure to keep an eye on his target all the while James and Franny continue the scan over. Once done an mugshot of Jose appears on a separate monitor in the van detailing everything from his age to his meta abilities. 

"That's our guy! Let's move!" James shouts as he gets into the driver seat. "Buckle up, Freddie we're on our way to you." 

The Magician flies down on a roof of a building directly across from Jose. His body quickly morphs back to human form. "Should I engage the target?"

"Negative on that big guy." Franny says over the comms. "According to this his power is to ignite himself or anything he touches resulting in massive controlled explosions. We can't risk any casualties." 

"Ok then what do you want me to do? Let him walk away!?" Magician responds, vocally annoyed.

"Sit back, i'll take the lead on this one. This situationcalls for a more delicate touch." Franny reaches up to a red button amongst a row of blue ones on the upper section of the computer setup. Upon pressing the button, the inner wall of van opens up to reveal folded up clothing. "Can you make your way to our van?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in two minutes." The Magician looks back at Jose before walking away from the edge of the roof.

A few minutes go by and Jose makes his way down a less populated street just a few blocks up from south street in a direction that leads out of town. The van that James and Magician are riding in is driving ever so slowly a block behind him. As Jose walks further down the sidewalk he feels the growing sense of being watched from a place he can't see. He takes a pause from walking and begins to slowly scan his surroundings, making sure to look at everyone and every window in the vicinity. Soon Jose spots the van further down the street from him and approaching slowly.

"This doesn't look good." Jose cautiously states as he makes a 180° turn to leave only to be blocked by a woman wearing a black masquerade mask, black fingerless gloves, unzipped maroon leather jacket over a black shirt with a depiction of a magic circle on it, black leather pants and boots. His face turns to that of confusion seeing the oddly dressed woman in front of him. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?" 

The iris of the masked woman's eyes begin to shift from a normal hazel color to glowing white. "You can just call Hexen." Hexen swiftly moves her hands to both sides of Jose's head prompting the villain's body to begin its ignition process as heat and burning light quickly build up from him. "Can't have you exploding just yet." Black energy pulses from her hands, seeping into Jose's head.

Almost immediately the heat and flare of his ignition cease, leaving him in a calm like trance. Hexen gently takes Jose by the chin, walking around to her left so that his back is facing the street. The van rolls up to them with The Magician sliding open the side door. Hexen proceeds to gently flick Jose's head causing him to fall back to the van and being caught by The Magician.

"See, I told you all we needed was a delicate touch." Hexen states with a prideful smug on her face. Magician looks at her then to his left at James who just laughs to himself. They quickly lift Jose into the van and drive off before anyone has a chance to take notice.