Up on the Rooftop

Erik shielded his eyes from the early New York City sun as it reflected off of nearby glass and metal, how the hell anyone in this city ever actually slept was beyond him. At the very least his mission was easy, stand guard, do nothing, be big, all skills he had been practicing his entire life. Not that Gwen would ever likely admit she was being guarded, but he had accepted that fact as soon as he was assigned it.

"I don't know why she asked me to do this. Helen could have done it all a lot faster." Gwen sighed tapping on her laptop. "I have a feeling this going to end up being a regular thing. We should get pretzels when I get the info … not like we could act on it if I find anything good." The teen was clearly a bit on the pessimistic side giving the redundancy of what she had been asked to do.

"You never know with Theo," Erik added idly, walking over to more closely see her progress, "We both know she hasn't gotten the whole tech situation figured...maybe we just cut her some slack once in a while."

"She can hardly keep it together during a briefing and anytime she gets stressed she strips her clothes off." Gwen reminded. "Leading a team isn't easy, I get that. Theo as leader?" Gwen made an iffy hand gesture.

Erik nodded his head lightly in agreement as he scanned the horizon once more, "You're right, it's rough. I honestly don't know why we even need a leader but between Sam and Theo…" He doesn't say anything more for a bit and let's the subject hang, "So how's it going with you...ugh I mean you and the Intel gathering."

Gwen paused. “Almost done. It’s a hospital not exactly the paragon of cyber security. It's actually pretty cool how they have digitized everything, make getting patient info a lot easier … for the patient and me. Anyway … since no names and just a rough description … It's just going to be a bit of a waiting game while it runs a search on the hospital records.”

"That's...a bit concerning honestly...but good, glad to hear that." Erik nods along, not truly grasping everything that's happening on screen but at the very least recognizing that information was being loaded. "But like...how's the training going? We haven't really all met up with Niko in a while…"

“Dull. Just a lot of very slow bots.” Gwen shrugged. “What about you?”

Erik shrugged, "Bots aren't great yeah, Sam keeps wanting to try drilling me for some fighting but…" he tilts his hand back and forth. As he's recalling he seems to remember something and leans in slightly, speaking just loud enough to make it over the city bustle, "I've got this spot in the old hangar I've been kinda hanging out in though, it's pretty cool. I tell HELEN that I'm training but honestly sometimes I just throw on a movie or something."

“We should ‘train’ together. With Niko.” Gwen suggested. “Sounds way better than bots.” She added watching the search bar tick along.

“Uhh...yeah, we definitely should. That would...that would be fun.” Erik stammered out, ‘still awkward as ever’ he thought to himself. “I’ll shoot a text to Niko...or actually he might not read that...I’ll go ahead and just ask him about it next time I see him.”

“Sure!” Gwen agreed brightly. “Sounds like a plan we can all agree with.” She said typing briefly on the laptop. “I’ll just forward all this info to Niko and T'Chantem. I also asked Niko if he wanted a pretzel, though I think I already know the answer.” She snorted.

Erik smiled, both at the future prospect of training with someone other than a robot, and also at the snortle. "Well alright then. I don't know why I expected this to take any longer. You find anything?"

“Medical records? Not much. It’s pretty sparse but … police records might tell us more.” Gwen mused. “If they were kidnapped then someone had to file it right? Otherwise it's not kidnapping, it's just finding coma kids with white hair in awkward positions on the street.” Though Gwen was debating if Theo knew the difference.

"Well shit," Erik sighed out, "I hope the others got a better lead then…" his mind naturally went to the thought of this had all been a touch of delerium. However before he could come to a decision, a clatter of garbage cans from the nearby alley caught his attention. Walking over near the ledge as Gwen finished up her work a man was being forced down the alley at gunpoint by two burly gentleman toward a waiting van. Erik turned back to Gwen, gripping and regipping the umbrella in his hand, "Hey you might want to take a look at this."

Gwen untangled herself from her laptop and peeked over the ledge. "Looks like tHey could use some heroing." Gwen said putting on her mask and hood. "You want first crack?" She offered.

Erik surveyed the alleyway, looking it over for once not for a way out but rather truly assessing the situation he pointed down to the two men, “You web them up and get the weapons out of the equation.” He slid up a bandana around his face and began walking to the end of the alley way, “I’ll make sure they can’t get away.”

"Oh I see, go and make me do the heavy lifting." She teased cartwheeling away.

“No that's no-ughh” Erik grimaced under the bandana and hurried to his position.

Gwen ran along the wall shooting a web ling at the gun. "Hey now don't you know that's dangerous?" She said yanking the line. Unfortunately she had gotten the man's gun and hand caught in the web and sent him tumbling forward. "Ooo crap there goes the cool factor. Why are ya still standing there get outta here!" She chided from the wall at the person who had been getting mugged.

The man, wide eyed and panicked made a break for it down the alleyway away from the men. Just as he neared the van the doors began to swing open, as another man stepped out. But before he could get himself out properly the entire van jolts upright as Erik slams down with his mace right into the engine block. The front completely crumpled, he lifted an arm to catch the rapidly oncoming car from toppling over onto him. He looked over at the startled man, “Sir you may want to head that way.” as he motioned with his head up the street.

“Collateral damage Erik!” Gwen shouted, shaking her head as she webbed the offending men to the wall. “You're just as bad as Niko.” She tsked.

Erik’s eyes go wide as he looks down at the now cracked asphalt under the van’s engine. The driver of the van’s body just begins to spill out of the front window groaning as he takes an embarrassed step back, letting go of the top with his other hand. The sudden weight shift sends it pitching back and the driver is sent back into his seat, to say nothing of the man who had been trying to get out of the back.

Walking back to the sidewalk, Erik scratches at his neck, “Ahh sh-” but he is cut off by the car behind the van’s alarm going off, blazing a scream into the city’s chorus. His shoulder slump and he resigns himself to finishing this whole business off. He steps forward and rips off the car door, dragging the driver from his seat in one hand. Leaving behind Thunderstrike on the sidewalk he reaches into the back and drags the other man out as well, bringing both men back into the alley.

Dropping them both down, Erik looks up to Gwen, “Alright soooo do you wanna web them and get out of here orrr?”

Gwen was already gift wrapping the baddies. "Almost done … then we should check the laptop."

“Alright..cool.” For a brief moment, Erik felt good and smiled.