Crime In Progress: Home Invasion (I)

--- Maya ---

(Right, I should take a look around and see if this is a false alarm or something.) She told herself, looking to see if there was any obvious sign of burglary.

(And you have no idea what you’re looking for do you?) Her inner madness asked as she stood there awkwardly for a moment.

“No… No I do not.” She sighed, not really sure how to inspect the building without coming off as a creeper herself.

(Check your map, it looks like it’s flagging something.) Her inner reason suggested, pointing out the red marker on her mini-map.

“Huh, it says there’s a criminal in one of the cars?” She frowned, looking at the two empty vehicles.

(No there’s a criminal’s phone in one of the cars.) Her inner logic corrected, reminding her about the fact that the MAP() tracked people based on their wi-fi devices.

“Right… give me a second.” She told the voice, before using her Scan() to pull up whatever information her informant Network had flagged the phone over.

“Let’s see the phone belongs to a creep who currently has a warrant out for his arrest. Apparently he’s been stalking some woman for the last couple of months, and tried attacking her a few days ago.” She read, using her eyes to shift through the files. “There’s also a note about how due to an officer shortage for the local precinct, the patrolling officers for this area are supposed to loop past every so often in case something happens, since they can’t station an actual protection detail.”

(Uh, Maya…) Her inner passion called trying to get her attention.

“Yeah?”

(Isn’t that address this house?)

“Oh?” Her eyes darted between her MAP() and the police report. “Oh shit!”

Closing out the files she rushed towards the door and tried forcing it open. “Shit! It’s locked!”

Figuring that she couldn’t waste time trying to find another entrance, she pointed her Hand Cannon towards the lock, set it for sound and fired off a small blast, before wincing at the loud sound of the door breaking its lock. (There goes stealth.)

Shaking her head she started making her way through the house, knowing she couldn’t use her MAP() to help her find the stalker due to him leaving his phone in the car.

“Who, who the fuck are you and why did you break into my house?!” A voice yelled, causing her eyes to snap to the man standing at the top of the stairs with one of his hands behind his back.

“The house’s security system sent out an alert.” She answered firing off another Scan () just to make sure this was the guy she was after.

“What? That’s… Damn it, I knew that thing was more trouble than it was worth.” The man scowled before shaking his head as his police record popped up on her headset. “I’m sorry to tell you this but that was a false alarm, we just got the finicky thing installed and I’d forgotten to-” The man’s lie cut off as a woman she hadn’t noticed smashed a lamp across the back of his skull.

“Oh, shit!” She cursed hopping out of the way as the man toppled down the stairs, a handgun flying out of his grip as he did so.

“He’s lying!” The woman called, prompting Maya to point her Hand Cannons at his downed form.

“R-right!” She nodded, before kicking the gun away from both herself and the man at her feet. “Um, do you, do you have your phone?”

“Yes.” The woman swallowed before letting out a shaky breath. “I just called the police, and the phone is sitting in my room.”

“That’s… that’s good.” She nodded again, not entirely sure of what else she was supposed to do beyond keeping her Hand Cannons pointed at the downed stalker. “I’m uh, I’m sorry about your door?”

The woman blinked before her eyes drifted towards the front door hanging open with a broken handle and lock. “Heh, don’t worry about it… You uh, you got here just in time…”

Her eyes drifted back to the gun as she gave the woman one last nod before swallowing at the implications. “Right…”

---

From there it had taken the police another five minutes to show up, and another ten to haul the stalker away, before they started hounding her with questions about what happened.

“I was um, I was going on a patrol… I’m new to the whole Mask thing.” She tried to explain. “I um, I have this connection to nearby security alerts, and it flagged the house when he broke in. From there I rushed over and tried to help.”

“Uh-huh.” The officer she was talking with nodded, before looking at the door. “May’ve helped a bit enthusiastically given the door, and the fact that you didn’t have confirmation of a crime.”

She bit her tongue from admitting that she did have probable cause given how she knew her Informant Network() wasn’t strictly speaking legal, at least the parts hacking the police records anyway.

“You’re lucky the victim isn’t pressing charges on that given your help with her stalker.” The officer berated her (like an asshole.) “I’m assuming you’re not affiliated with the Heroes’ Guild in any way?”

“No.” She confirmed through grit teeth.

“Then we can’t call you in as a witness for his trial.” The officer told her, making another note on his pad.

“Lay off her.” Another officer called, as they and the woman she’d saved walked over. “She helped distract the guy and get him away from Ms. Smith her, and this is the kind of crime where we don’t need a witness beyond the actual victim.”

“Right.” The first officer scoffed, before walking away.

“Yeah, just ignore him.” The second officer told her. “He’s always had issues with Masks, and even if you were a bit rough around the edges. You still did good for a first night out.”

“Uh, thanks…” She laughed a little nervously, not wanting to point out that this wasn’t her first night out.

“No, thank you!” The woman -Ms. Smith- told her. “I’m not sure what would’ve happened if you hadn’t showed up, so thank you for helping.”

“I, uh, I really didn’t do much.” She admitted more than a little bashful under Ms. Smith’s eyes.

“You got him away from me long enough to call the police and sneak up on him.” Ms. Smith corrected her. “You did plenty, kid.”

“Oh, uh, it was, it was no problem.” She assured her. “I was, I was happy to help!”