7.

Jane sighed as she flew towards the outer ring, she had been about to have dinner when the call came in, gang violence in sector 20 multiple reports of heavy weapons and Supers involved.

Janes ‘Hero name’ was Valkyrie after some ancient warrior godlings, someone on the PR team had chosen it. She had refused to wear a mask and nearly hit someone over the first costume they designed for her. Just because her skin was tougher than any armour didn’t mean she wanted to face enemies in a bikini.

New Cal had a branch of the hero’s league who organised all the hero’s they could find. Once the potential members were found they were trained, set missions and in the end used to make money. Sponsorship and advertising were key apparently.

Flying over New Cal Jane admired the mega city. It consisted of the core Surrounded by three rings all with separating walls. Each ring was divided further into eight sectors by walls running like spokes from the outer wall to the core. So heading to sector 20 meant Jane was flying southwest to the outer ring.

As Jane approached the sector her communications implant switched to the local security channel and she listened to the reports. The gangs were scattering, leaving death and destruction behind as always. Jane asked to meet with the person in charge and was sent to a scrap yard right up against the outer wall.

Approaching she flew over a number of garrison vehicles and heavily armed officers watching for trouble whilst a team of crime techs with all their gear and drones could be seen on the property. There were two vans and three cars parked haphazardly on the front lot of the yard. Jane landed in a small clear spot on the lot and strode towards what she assumed was a workshop.

Stepping into the warehouse she was amazed at the destruction within, everything was covered in a slimy film probably what remained of the foam from a fire suppression system but the carnage could still be made out. The place was a mess, the walls and floor showing scarring from multiple weapon types and a massive hole blasted into the mezzanine level.

Then there were the bodies mostly wearing simple body armour over grubby street clothes. There were a few with clearly better equipment including heavy armour and even a set of power armour still stood near the door.

Jane approached a stressed looking man who had looked up at her entrance.

“I don’t want to step on your toes but could you give me an idea of what happened here?” Jane asked still, taking in just how much damage was done and noting heavy guns overhead.

“Big battle between two local gangs Mad dogs invading Mechrons turf multiple locations lots devolving into running battles in the streets mostly small arms fire and low level supers, there were reports of a brief sighting of some of the leaders but I think we arrived before they could really get into it.” Sighing he continued.

“Here though is different: the burn on that wall and the blown out mezzanine were caused by a heavy plasma cannon.” Plasma cannons were serious hardware, specialising in destruction.

“There are also two dead who were well known and quite powerful.” He gestured towards the door “The power armour contains “The Soldier” a category 5 brawler, someone stabbed through his neck armour, and here is a category 6 telekinetic called “Shift”” whilst looking at a corpse at his feet without a head and half a leg.

“What about the security systems on the buildings? They seem pretty extreme” Jane waved to the Gatling guns and a small pile of bodies they looked to have killed.

“Owners had them installed, unusual in this city and only allowed on commercial properties but they were registered properly. Also records show the owners emigrating from one of the warlord enclaves on the east coast where systems like this are necessary to survive.”

Jane flinched stretches of the east coast were basically a constant war zone with many factions fighting over the ruins, there you didn’t own anything unless you could defend it.

“I was about to go and talk to the owners you want to tag along?” Jane just nodded, she had seen violent scenes before but was happy to be getting outside.

Outside the light was fading fast but a clean up crew had arrived and started loading up bodies and scrubbing blood following after the crime techs. The detective first went to an officer standing over a car's bonnet.

“Anything I should know about the owners?”

“Both shaken up but surprisingly calm, here's what they were carrying: a basic laser pistol, each not fired today, a short knife again clean and just normal pocket junk otherwise.” Said items were sat on the trunk of a vehicle.

“A quick search of the property didn’t show anything suspicious. They told us where they hid, it’s a pretty good bolt hole an old security van under a pile of other junk”

“Okay thank you”

They continued on towards the young man and woman sitting on another vehicle nearby. Jane thought they were probably a similar age to her, the files said they were twins. The man leant against the vehicle, feet on the ground and the woman sat cross-legged on the bonnet. Both watching the investigation proceed around them.

They were clearly siblings both tanned with matching black hair and bright blue eyes. The girl looked tall and was strikingly beautiful with strong features and lithe movements sliding to stand beside her brother, she was wearing tight jeans showing off long, strong legs and a loose sweater.

The young man was ruggedly handsome, with a strong nose and jaw, his loose shirt hanging from broad shoulders and rolled up sleeves showing muscular forearms and large strong hands. Jane found herself drawn to his eyes which were clearly appraising her as she was him. The sister gave him an elbow when she noticed causing him to smirk and straighten up to greet them.

Jane let the detective do his thing whilst observing closely first was a simple recounting events from their perspective, the man Ryan did most of the talking in a deep and soft voice. Recounting that today some thugs had brought their car in for some work (one of the ones inside).

As they were discussing the job one of the more senior gang members showed up looking worried. At this point Ryan said he had left them to it, retreating upstairs and collecting has sister. They had heard and seen on the cameras a group of three cars pull up, they heard arguing and shouted nothing specific as the upper level was well soundproofed.

Then two vans turned up with more heavily armed thugs. Things looked to be going downhill so the two left through the back of the building and ran into the scrapyard. They activated the security systems as they heard weapons fire start behind them.

“You seem very calm about all this” Jane decided to chime in.

“We grew up in a dangerous place. It's not the first time we have hidden from gun fire. Though this is the first time anyone official has shown up.” We all knew the Outer ring was left to police itself as long as they didn’t get out of hand.

“So you only have video surveillance watching the gate? You only saw Zero, Caesar and a bunch of thugs heard a battle then saw Zero's car leaving?” The siblings nodded

The detective retook control “All the video and logs you sent us match up with your story so I’ll go see what other carnage has been caused tonight.” The detective thanked the two and nodded to Jane then left to continue his investigation.

This left Jane alone with the siblings feeling slightly awkward; she knew she didn’t really have anything to do with the fighting already finished. She would have to hang around the area just in case but was looking at a long evening of patrols.