Cooper sat behind the wheel of a black sport utility vehicle, one of the four cars provided by the El Puerto Police Department for patrol purposes. It was a bulky thing with room for five passengers and plenty of cargo space in the back. He kind of hated it, personally. It was too big for his liking. But, that size was also a necessity. The two cruisers the team had weren't large enough to accommodate his gear without a little finagling.

The streets he rode down were mostly well-kept, with only a cracked sidewalk or old structure showing their faces every now and then. This wasn't the rundown industrial district, but an area just on the outskirts. It was almost free of the gang influence which brought down the industrial district proper. The almost part of that was what brought him down this particular road on this particular day.

Cooper halted for a stop sign then hung a right. Traffic was pretty light. A pair of cars came down the opposite side of the road at him, and a blue truck puttered along several feet ahead. At 6 o'clock in the morning, most people weren't quite up and about yet.

The truck in front of him turned left, providing an uninhibited shot to his destination. He pulled up to the curb and threw the SUV into park before switching it off. Technically, this wasn't a parking spot. One benefit of being a superhero on duty was that he could put his vehicle pretty much anywhere as long as he didn't block a fire lane or handicap spot. After all, heroes had to be able to respond anywhere, anytime, unabated.

The building he stopped in front of was a small two story apartment complex. The once vibrant blue siding long since faded to a duller shade. It was still in pretty good shape, though. The windows were clean in intact. The door was free of dents and dings. Probably not a bad place to live, all things considered. Hopefully, he could make it even better.

Cooper adjusted his Bronze Knight helmet before exiting the vehicle. Once outside he took a big whiff, for what good it did him. His senses didn't really help him in the middle of the city. With so many people around, all he could really tell was that there were a lot of them. An overabundance of men, perhaps, but even that wasn't unusual, especially considering what he was there to do.

Bronze Knight began around to the back of the SUV and opened up the hatch. Inside lay his weapons. Most dominant was a Spartan-style shield, a broad slightly domed circle with a flat edge made of wood coated in bronze. The other was a spear. Shorter than a historical Spartan dory at just five feet long, it had been made with single combat in mind. The vaguely leaf-shaped blade was not bronze. It was black and notably too thick to cut. He took them both out of the vehicle before closing the hatch.

He walked toward the apartment building. It was set back a bit from the sidewalk. An imperceptible breeze blew, yet he felt it clearly on his bare chest and arms. His ears, as always, were much more useful than his nose. He heard a man bark surprised orders at another, followed by the clatter of footsteps. Two more sets approached from behind the building on opposite sides. They already knew he was here.

Cooper stopped about halfway between the structure and his car. Two men came through the front door, while another pair rounded either corner of the building. All were of Asian descent. The latter pair stank of cigarette smoke. Three wore cheap deodorant. One was likely hungover, if the lingering scent of rum on his breath was anything to go by. They stood in a loose group a few feet away from the intruding hero.

"Are you guys the bellboys?" Cooper said. "I don't have much in the way of luggage, sorry. If you could park my car, though, that would be great."

The men exchanged a few puzzled looks, but kept their mouths shut.

"Nothing?" Cooper shook his head. "I can't believe what passes for service nowadays."

"Why are you here?" Growled one of the men.

"I'm looking for someone, a Wei Lao. Do you know him?"

More confused looks.

"What business do you have with Mr. Wei?" A different man spoke.

"I'm a superhero looking for a criminal. Do the math."

"I think you should leave before you get hurt." The first man said. One of his companions drew a large pocket knife. The other two squared their stances, not quite ready to fight, but almost.

Cooper grinned. "I was hoping you would say that."

He charged forward, shield before him and spear angled low. The men looked startled by the sudden burst of aggression. They made ready and tried to circle around where they thought he would be. Bronze Knight had just enough time to build up some good momentum before smashing into the man who had been first to talk. The gangster bounced off the shield to land on his back. Cooper used the equal and opposite force transferred into him to assume a wide stance.

The men to either side of him attacked simultaneously. The one to his left, Cooper blocked with his shield. The one to the right met his spear long before closing to punching range. Cooper swept his weapon to the right, hitting the thug in the thigh. The high-voltage taser in the head of his weapon activated, stunning the man momentarily with a quick jolt. In the split-second pause, Cooper shoved the guy at his shield to the ground. He then continued on with his spear, raking it back the other direction before swinging it over his head to strike down. The rightmost man crumpled to the ground under the weight of what electricity coursed through his veins.

The final man, the one with a knife, joined the fray. Cooper blocked his paltry thrust with the shield. He choked up on his spear and thrust forward twice. Each hit in the chest. He stumbled back. The man most recently put on the ground stood up and tried another attack. Cooper blocked again. This time he launched a volley of quick little spear jabs. The gangster cried out in pain as jolts spread rapid fire through his body. He fell to his knees, awake but thoroughly subdued.

The knife-wielder gave pause at seeing his compatriot so viciously attacked. Cooper used this as an opening to close the short distance and apply a jolt to his neck. Already weakened by previous attacks, the shock so close to his brain was enough to put him out. He went down much the same as the other, except he fell backward, completely unconscious.

The first man, whom Cooper had charged into, was just getting to his feet. Bronze Knight planted a foot on his chest and pushed him back down. The man grabbed his ankle in an attempt to yank him off. Cooper lashed out five times with his spear. The criminal shouted one continuous cry. When Cooper removed his foot, the man barely stirred.

One left, the man Bronze Knight had hit a few times, but hadn't quite put down. Cooper straightened up and turned to him. The man looked upon the hero with a look of sheer terror. Cooper walked toward him.

"No no wait—" The man pleaded with him, but Cooper did not stop.

Out of options and unwilling to fight, the man turned to flee. Cooper leapt at him. Shield and spear collided with his back. The impact sent him forward, while electricity froze his limbs. He didn't get back up when his face hit the dirt.

Cooper stood. He took a big whiff. There was a concentration of people on the top floor, six or seven all clumped around the same small area. He'd bet his helmet that's where Wei Lao was.

He passed his spear into the same hand which held his shield. His now free right hand reached into a pouch strapped just above his forearm on the inside of the shield. From within he drew a quartet of stasis cuffs. One was applied to each gangster, whose immune systems pulsed red before their arms and legs snapped straight and they ceased movement.

Before he entered the building, Cooper detected a hint of lavender in the air behind him. He turned to see a dark-haired woman in her thirties staring at him from across the street. She was dressed in professional attire, probably on her way to work. Her eyes were wide, her stance halfway to bolting. She probably saw the whole thing. Cooper waved at her.

"Official NAAME business," he called. "Please move along. It's not safe here."

The woman stayed still for a moment before running off. Cooper watched until she disappeared behind the buildings on his side of the street. He shook his head and turned around. He hated that the people he was supposed to protect were sometimes afraid of him. The innocent had nothing to fear.

That dealt with, he entered the building. There was no lobby or entryway or anything. Instead, the front door opened straight up into the middle of a narrow hall. Dark wood molding rose about halfway up to meet white painted walls. Faux wood doors lined the corridor at even intervals. Each had a number nailed to the middle, but no nameplates for the tenants within.

There was a staircase on the far eastern end. Cooper made for it. One of the doors ahead of him opened slightly. An old Latino man poked one eye out of the crack, met Cooper's gaze, and quickly faded back. The door snapped shut. The hero shook his head again.

The stairs went up for a bit, then doubled back on themselves to reach the second floor. The moment Cooper landed on it, he found the group he'd smelled from outside. A little further than halfway down stood a tight throng of five people, four men and one woman, all of them Asian. They wore hoodies, windbreakers, white tank tops, typical hooligan attire. The woman had the most cliché red pipe wrench he'd ever seen. The rest were unarmed.

Cooper stopped a few feet away from them. They didn't move to fight him, but looked quite tense judging by their expressions and body language.

For a moment, Bronze Knight remained silent. He set his shield down next to him so it leaned against a wall. Normally, it made him quite strong in hallways as it became essentially a mobile wall. This one, however, was simply too narrow. He barely had room to hold it out in front of him, let alone maneuver it effectively in a fight. So, he was better off without it.

The second thing he did was grab his spear right below the blade. With his now free left hand, he twisted a portion of the haft just below where his right grasped it. The handle retracted into itself until he was left with what was basically a knife.

The thugs watched his every movement. Cooper could hear their heartbeats pick up speed. He felt the air shift against his skin, manipulated by their deep breaths. He smelled the apprehension, the fear, in their sweat. Watching him prepare for battle made them all uncomfortable. Exactly what he wanted.

When everything was finished, he faced them.

"I admire your loyalty—really, I do—but you all know how this ends," he began. "You know who I am, and you know there's no victory for you here. My warrant today isn't for you. As it stands, and as far as I'm concerned, none of you have committed any crimes yet. If you attack me, that changes. Walk away now, and you do it as free men and woman. Fight me, and you wind up in a jail cell. I don't really mind either way. The choice is yours."

A few of them exchanged glances with each other. The woman remained solely focused on her enemy. She, in particular, seemed to hate him the most. He probably arrested someone she knew. That didn't exactly make her unique.

The criminals didn't back down. Though they seemed outwardly less willing to do so, they still all were ready for a fight.

Cooper sighed. "Have it your way."

He walked forward, and the mob charged to meet him. The narrow passage constrained their avenues of attack. The first aggressor reached him and drew back a hand. Cooper answered with a backfist to the face which sent him careening nose-first into the wall.

The next followed after the first without a moment's breath. Cooper lunged and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him in close. The hero administered three stabs with his shock spear turned shock shank. The third ran up. Cooper stopped him short with a side kick. He then threw the man he was still grappling with to the ground behind him.

The third man came back for a straight punch. Cooper blocked with his free hand, stabbing simultaneously with his weapon. Electricity stunned the criminal. Cooper took the opening to unleash a flurry of blows, alternating between straight punches and stabs, eight in total all up and down his chest. The man fell to his knees.

The moment he did, the fourth in line attacked. Cooper took a punch on the jaw. He blocked a second with his knife hand, followed by a short uppercut. Two diagonal slices and a stab hit shortly after. The fourth man stumbled back on shaky knees.

The woman pushed past him to be the last to join the fight. She swung her wrench downward. Cooper leaned back, avoiding it by mere inches. He tried to answer with a thrust, but to his amazement the woman actually managed to swing her wrench and parry. She countered with a pair of diagonal strikes. Cooper avoided the first, then burst forward to catch the second wrist-on-wrist. He grabbed her forearm and yanked her forward. Her balance faltered. With his knife hand, he punched up into her elbow. The bone snapped. She screamed. Cooper grabbed her jacket and tossed her into the wall. She crumpled in a heap against it.

A foot embedded in Cooper's lower back. He took a hard step forward to catch himself. The hero felt the flow of displaced air, and used that to pinpoint the attacker behind him. He spun around with a vicious hook kick. The thug—the first one to attack him in the hall—took it on the temple and crashed into the wall. Cooper pressed him up against it with his free hand. The other delivered four knife stabs. Repeated elecrical charges up his spine knocked the man out cold.

While that one was still falling, the one Cooper had thrown came back for another round. Bronze Knight rounded on him, windmilling his arms so his knife struck downward followed immediately by a fist. Cooper reversed his momentum to stab low. A shock to the thigh ruined the man's balance. Cooper grabbed the back of is head and slammed it into the wall. Blood spurted from the man's destroyed nose. Cooper let him fall to the ground, conscious but not liable to get up anytime soon.

The last man left stood a few feet away. Cooper took a few big steps toward him. Like a fool, he stood his ground. Bronze Knight leapt, pushed off the wall with one foot, and used that momentum to deliver a horrendous punch into the man's face. The criminal fell to his hands and knees. Cooper dropped an axe kick into his very exposed back. The man collapsed the rest of the way onto his stomach.

Breathing a bit harder after that altercation, but with no time to waste, he turned around and started back down the hall. The door the gangsters were protecting was only a few steps away. A smell of the air indicated there was still someone inside. Exactly who remained a mystery. Every human on the planet smelled a little different, but that didn't help him if he'd never met the person.

He stopped in front of the door to inspect it. Another deep inhale. No C4 on the other side. No shotgun waiting to blast his head off. No fishing line tripwires, chairs beneath the knob, or anything, just a single man inside smoking a cigarette. Confident he could enter safely, Cooper opened the door.

It was not an apartment, but an office. As rather plain one, at that, with only a desk and chair, and a window behind flanked by slender filing cabinets. At the desk sat a man with short dark hair, dressed in a wife beater that revealed the intricate tattoos running up and down his muscular arms. His legs were hidden by the desk, but his pants smelled of denim. A perfect match to Cooper's target, right down to the Newports he smoked.

Cooper was amazed he hadn't run, but kept that to himself as he spoke.

"Wei Lao. By the authority of NAAME and of the El Puerto Police Department, you are under arrest, for—"

"Yeah, yeah," Wei Lao cut him off. He took a puff before continuing. "You could spend all week reading my rap sheet." He threw his cigarette out the open window then lay his now empty hand atop the desk. "Why don't you just cuff me and get it over with?"

Well, this was an obvious trap, betrayed mostly by how Mr. Wei kept one hand below the desk. Beyond that, the flow of air in the room was interrupted by something paper thin held in his hidden hand.

Eyes locked on target, Cooper approached. He removed one of the two stasis cuffs in his left pocket. When he was just about to put it on, Wei Lao shot out of his seat and made a big backhand cut with the knife in his previously hidden hand. Cooper dropped the stasis cuff to the desk and caught Wei Lao's wrist. Using his own knife he painted three strokes on Wei's forearm. The criminal cried out and dropped his weapon. Cooper slammed he enemy's head against the desk then hauled him over it by the collar, all with one hand. Wei Lao hit the ground chest-first in front of the desk. Cooper reacquired the stasis cuff, put a knee on Wei's back, and slipped the cuff on his wrist. He pulsed and went rigid.

Cooper stood. He gave one last glance at Wei Lao before exiting into the hallway. Just as he predicted, the five people he'd pushed through in getting to their boss were still there, either knocked out or too hurt to get up.

The hero retrieved his shield. He would need the stasis cuffs in the pouch on it to restrain all these criminals. Only two fit in his left pocket, and the other had to carry his phone. Cooper put on the shield, sheathed his knife in the horizontal scabbard behind his back, and went to work. He knelt over the first man.

"Wei Lao has been secured, Top-Down," Cooper said as he produced a cuff. "I'm restraining a few of his mooks, now."

"Understood, B.K. I'll notify the authorities," said the voice of Valerie—Top-Down—through the comm device in his ear.

"Thanks. Bronze Knight out."

If he hadn't been talking, he would've heard them coming. Had he not been distracted, he would've felt the air shift as they approached. But he was talking, and he was distracted. The only indication Cooper had that he was not alone in the hallway was a whiff of lavender, followed by the collision of something metal with his helmet.

The only thing that kept him on his feet was years of martial arts training. Stars swam in his vision. His helmet rang like a bell, emphasizing the pain in his head. He whirled around on his attacker. It was the same black-haired woman who'd seen him fight outside. Her face was twisted in a sneer of pure rage. A long piece of rusted rebar occupied her right hand.

"You?" Cooper choked out.

The woman gave a primal growl and swung her improvised weapon down at him. Cooper blocked it with his shield, barely able to move the thing around in time through the tight quarters.

"Hey, stop!" He ordered in his most authoritarian voice.

The woman paid him no mind. Again she swung down at him, and he blocked. He peeked over his shield just long enough to see her come again. He blocked.

In the momentary reprieve between attacks, Cooper centered himself. He accepted the reality of the situation, and willed himself to action, even though he detested the idea of fighting a civilian. The next time she swung, Cooper felt the air swirl around her movement, heard the flexing of cloth against her body. He dropped the shield to his side, stepped forward, and caught her wrist well before it would have struck him. He yanked backward. She stepped into him, off balance.

"Stop," he commanded.

The woman moved even closer to him. She opened up wide, and sunk her teeth into his forearm. Cooper cried out at the multiple sharp little blades pinching his flesh. He released his grip on her wrist. At the same time, she let him go. Bronze Knight took two big steps back, holding his arm. Blood seeped from several puncture wounds around the bite mark.

The woman closed the distance. She clocked him on the head with the rebar, whapped him in the kidneys, the swung sloppily upward as he bent over. The rebar hit mostly on his protected forehead, though some of it pivoted to slide between the open T-shaped slot in his helmet and contact his chin. Cooper stumbled back and fell on his rear end, dropping his shield in the process. It slid along the floor behind him for a few feet.

She barred down on him. Cooper rose to his knees to meet her. He leaned away from her attack, drew his own weapon, and slashed across her middle. Her body reacted to the charge. Cooper could hear the electricity course through her. Yet, she showed no pain nor any sign of stopping. She sent a knee his way. The hero stood to avoid it.

He let the woman come at him, intent on countering her lackluster form rather than launching his own offensive at an overly violent enemy. She came down at him again. Just like he had with Wei Lao, Cooper grabbed her wrist and painted slices on her arm. She dropped the rebar. While it clattered on the ground, Bronze Knight shoved her away, followed by push kick to gain further distance. While she gave automatic reactions to the attacks, she still didn't seem the least bit put off by them.

"If you don't stop, I will be forced to escalate." Cooper gave her one final warning.

His caution fell on deaf ears. It was like she hadn't even heard him. Stripped of her weapon, she instead jumped at him. Cooper planted his back against the wall. She soared past him to land face-first on the floor. The moment she did, Cooper pounced. He fell atop her, a knee on her back. She thrashed against his weight, little more than an undulating mass of arms and legs. She growled and grunted in the struggle. Her hair was all over the place. Not a person, but a wild animal.

Cooper sheathed his knife. The hero took the last stasis cuff from his pocket. He caught one of her arms and forced the cuff on her wrist. The influence of advanced technology finally brought her under control, but at a price. The stasis cuff taking over control of her body was too much for her to handle. Her left arm cracked twice as it snapped into place at her side. Her foot twisted in an unnatural way, the ankle probably sprained. Such injuries were exactly why doctrine with stasis cuffs was to subdue a perpetrator before putting one on them. Despite all of this trauma, she showed absolutely zero reaction to the pain.

"I'm sorry." Cooper said before he stood up.

"What was all that?" Asked Top-Down in his ear.

"Honestly? I have no fucking idea. Some lady just went nuts and started attacking me."

"Drugs?"

"I don't know. Probably. I have her stasised, but I couldn't subdue her beforehand."

"I'll get an ambulance to you."

"Thanks."

The correspondence ended with that. Cooper retrieved his shield and restarted his previous task of restraining the rest of the criminals. What an odd day.