Quantum Dissolve: Chapter Six. (Jade Shade vs Peerless-Person)

The (old) Mayor, and Blackie Aaron, were dead.

Shivved in prison, by inmates related to their victims.

"Good enough for 'em", grumbled JS.

He was calmly busy working on a new mask, and this one was taking considerably more work than the current one.
He was endeavoring to replicate the process of the store-boughts, sculpting, molding, vacuum forming, the whole deal.

He was at the sculpting stage.
Slow going.
A lot of setbacks, and outright squashed flops.

As he worked, he reflected on the day he heard the confession by one of the weaker underlings, of what Mayor and Blackie's plot was for if "Desmodus-Guy", had gotten the upper hand.

About what he expected.

Kill Jade-Shade, unmask him, destroy the reputation of his secret identity, frame him for some horrible crimes, presumably ones they committed, then, The Mayor would have signed a law ordering all masked vigilantes to unmask, and, given that the last one standing would have been "Desmodus-Guy", it would have just been Blackie, who would have gleefully complied, and then been hailed as the hero of the city.

Essentially, getting the public to worship the murderer of their children, and to despise the one who tried to stop him.
"Scum".
"Good riddance".
JS thought.

This mask was....very close...but a just bit cock-eyed.
He squashed it.

"Enough for today, time to go on patrol".

He washed the clay off his hands, threw on the current mask, pulled on his gloves, clipped on the (now, tinted green) utility belt, and he was ready to go.


It was a slow night.
JS chased off a couple purse thieves.
It was easier, now that the legend was established.
He barely ever needed to whip out the collapsible baton.
"A shame", he figured.
It had cost a pretty penny.

Suddenly, he heard a woman scream.
"Ah, the music of the night", he mused.
He broke into a run in the direction of the sound.

Before he could get there, he heard sounds of struggle, and two male voices grunting, and then finally, the audible sounds of punches, and a dull thud, like a sack of potatoes.

When he got there, someone else had taken care of it.

He was 6 feet tall, 200 pounds of muscle, lantern jaw, black hair, almost blue, a spit-curl in the front.
He wore red acrobat tights, blue trunks, blue boots, a blue chest shield with a "P", encased in an upside down diamond, and from his shoulders, and down to his knees, hung a blue cape.
Same exact color as the boots, trunks, and shield.

The figure put his fists on his his hips, and said in a booming voice "s'okay, man, I got this one".

Then he raised his hands in the air, and flew away.

FLEW.

"Oh...nuh-UH!", JS said looking up, bewildered.


Next night, next patrol, similar incident.

Except, this time, along with an unconscious mugger, and a grateful victim, he left the symbol from the chest shield, and the name "Peerless-Person", written on an adjacent brick wall.
Burnt there, as if with a kind of laser.

"Hmph", JS grunted.


Three nights later, and the news was singing the praises of this "Peerless-Person".

"Me and the new guy are gonna have to have us a little talk", JS mumbled.


That night, a woman's screams rang out.
No one answered them.
They came from a MP3/recorder device left by JS.
After an hour, JS picked it up, and turned it off.
"Interesting", he grunted.

He tried this for two more nights in different locations.
Still nothing.
"VERY interesting", he snarked.

The news the next afternoon revealed more good deeds done by Peerless-Person.
"Very interesting indeed...", JS quipped.

The next morning, JS as Dusty Irwin collected some nice sized rocks while doing the rounds of the school.

When he got home, he took them out behind his apartment complex, and spray-painted them green with the leftover paint he had left the pig-o-grams with.

That night, he took them on patrol, along with a slingshot.


Peerless-Person floated to the ground, and handed the old lady her cat.

"Oh, bless you, young man!", she said lovingly.
She then took the cat inside with her.

Just then, Peerless-Person was struck with something.
Hard.
"Sonuva...!!!", he shouted, clutching his forehead.
A red mark started to form.
It was going to bruise for sure.

PP looked down at the projectile, a green painted rock, the size of a chicken nugget, with a tiny folded note tied around with a rubber band.

He looked around for the assailant, and saw nobody.

He picked up the rock, and read the note.

"Some Jade from the Shade- JS".

He finally had PP's attention.


The next night, JS didn't have to look too hard, PP found him.

He stepped out from an alleyway, very close to where they'd first met.
"What's the deal, man?".

"You tell me", JS snarked.

"Look, I don't have time for this", PP said with dismissive annoyance.
With that, two bright green lasers lanced from his eyes.
Apparently.
The beams hit the wall by JS shoulder, and the chunk of wall exploded.

JS ducked, and rolled out of the way just in time.

JS stood up, and dusted himself off.
"If you think that scares me, you're sorely mistaken".

"Fair enough", PP said, and with that, he fired his lasers again.
This time, aimed at a manhole cover by JS's feet.
But this time, JS held up a small mirror, and caught the beams, and bent them towards a wall by PP.
Nothing.
No explosion.
A pair of harmless laser dots, and nothing more.
"Thought so", grunted JS with un-disguised satisfaction.

PP reacted with shock, and went to fly away.
Also nothing.

"Okay, let's end the farce".

PP looked up, to the roof of the convenience store he was standing beside, and saw police officers shutting down the crane that ran his wire lift.
His accomplices were no doubt cuffed.

The jig was up.

"So, 150 to 200 milliwatt laser-pointers activating pre-set explosive packs, clever", JS said calmly.

"250, actually", PP said with a smirk.

"Impressive. Illegal you know", JS quipped.

"Look who's talking", PP snarked back.

"Touche", JS muttered.
Then, he hit PP with the taser.
Then, softened up, he clobbered him with the collapsible baton.

He examined PP's face, and found what he was looking for.
Latex appliances, and blended makeup hid the fiber optics that guided the laser beams to an inch away from his eyes.

JS dug around under the back of his collar, and got the lasers, and ripped them free of the fibers.
"Thanks", he grunted, and stuffed them into a spare belt compartment.

He took off then.

"Another one bites the dust", he thought.

This one had been easy.
They were probably going to get tougher.
"Fine by me", JS thought.