A week later Jia’s come to the conclusion that her mother was right. She wants to register as a vigilante. It’s crazy, but she’s already hearing stories of people signing up to try and take advantage of people or hurt them. People abusing the power this act gives them for their own gain. She doesn’t know how much of it’s true and the government’s keeping very quiet about any allegations. All they’ll say is that they’re looking into it. She doesn’t want vigilantes getting a bad name though. There’s a long history in this country of people sacrificing to help others. She knows there are people who really want to make a difference.

A quick internet search doesn’t show anywhere in Napa Valley to register. The rules for the Vigilantes Making Us Safe Act, or VMUS for short, are still changing. The official web site for the act says that if your city isn’t listed you can go to your local police station and they’ll get you set up. Jia knows where that is. She had to get her brother out of it on a couple of occasions when they were younger. He had a habit of getting in trouble as a teenager which is thankfully behind him. He’s lucky the local cops were always forgiving.

A request to borrow the family car’s denied. Her mom needs it today. Ever since Jia started being able to land a few hits, her mom has cut their training to every other day. Jia accused her of not wanting to get beat up. “You’re not totally wrong. I’m here to teach you, not the other way around. If anyone’s going to be in pain it won’t be me. Besides, I’ve taught you most of what I can. There are a few techniques left but you’re not ready for them yet.”

At this point practice will make perfect and while they can practice together, practice in real world situations is going to go a lot further than the two of them beating on each other. Besides, “I have a life you know. I’ve mostly put it on hold to teach you but I can’t do that forever.”

Today looks to be a great day to register. She’s off from training and the winery for the first time in over a month. The police station’s nearly eight miles away though and almost the entire trip back is uphill if she has to take a bike. She swears at her rotten luck.

Not wanting to waste a day off, Jia decides if she doesn’t have to train today she can handle the trip. Stopping at the winery for a few glasses of relaxation wine is the extent of her preparation. After finishing them she hops on her bike and starts heading down the mountain.

It’s not a short trip but at least it’s mostly downhill. With the amount of training she’s gone through she’s in the best shape she’s been in years. She’s stronger, faster, more agile. The trip goes by fast. It’s early and the roads are mostly empty. The beauty of the trees and mountains distract her from the work she’s doing and before long she’s in front of the Napa police station. Looking for anywhere to lock her bike up, she doesn’t find much. She settles on locking it to a tree and heads inside.

The station isn’t like any you see on TV. It’s almost laid back. A few cops are walking around and a few people are sitting in a small lobby waiting on someone to help them. There’s no phones buzzing or people shouting. Nobody’s led through the place in handcuffs.

Going to the front desk, she finds a middle aged woman sitting there playing on her phone. It takes a few seconds for her to realize there’s someone standing before her but when she notices she gives Jia a big grin. She doesn’t bother to put her phone down. “What can I help you with?”

“I’m here to register as a vigilante.”

The woman’s smile gives way to a look of confusion. “A vigilante? What do you mean? Are you a criminal who wants to turn herself in? If so just take a seat over there and I’ll have an officer with you when they’re available.”

Now it’s Jia’s turn to be confused. “No, I’m trying to register as a vigilante. Under the VMUS Act. It said online that if there isn’t a dedicated location listed for the city to just go register at the police station. So you know, I’m here.”

The woman seems even more confused but tells Jia to wait a minute. She gets up and wanders into an office down the hall with the door closed and the blinds pulled shut. After a couple of minutes she comes back out, a scowl spread across her face. “The captain will be with you in just a few minutes. If you can take a seat over there somewhere we’d really appreciate it.”

Jia sits in a beat up plastic chair and starts reading a magazine. Some cooking thing. She feels like she gets halfway through it before an unkempt, middle aged, overweight detective with terrible hair comes stumbling out of the same office the receptionist previously went into. He looks around the lobby franticly, before saying in a much too loud tone, “Who’s here about the vigilante thing?”

Jia jumps up and walks toward him. “That’s me.”

The man stares at her for a minute, his arms crossing in annoyance. “You have got to be kidding me.” Jia isn’t quite sure if he’s talking to her or himself with that one. Finally he almost yells, “Follow me, we need to have a chat.” Jia doesn’t think anything this man can do would be legitimately thought of as chatting but she reluctantly follows him back to his office.

As she enters, the man yells behind him, “Close the door.” He turns around and plops into his chair. “Sit.” He’s not asking so Jia does what she’s told. The placard on his desk reads, “Detective Florence”. Detective Florence leans forward and stares at her with wide eyes. “So let me get this straight Ms. ---”

He trails off so Jia says, “Crawford.”

“Ms. Crawford,” he says. “What in the ever living fuck has you wanting to be a vigilante?”

Unsure how to respond to his outburst, she focuses her attention on his name placard to distract from his shouting. It’s brown and looks old. “Um, I guess I just want to help people.”

The man bursts out laughing. “That’s rich. Seriously kid, you know this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, right?”

Jia sits there blinking, not sure how to talk to this man. He’s practically gasping for air now. With a deep sigh he leans toward her. “Look, this is Napa Valley, not LA or some big place. We’re a peaceful community. There’s not a bunch of people who need a vigilante here. What kind of crime do you think we get? I don’t bust big drug deals or criminal masterminds. There’s a bunch of wife beaters, domestic violence, drunk drivers, more than a few rapes unfortunately. It’s not even random crap though. It’s people who know each other. Our biggest issue is that people here drink too much. There aren’t going to be a bunch of vigilantes here. This thing started a week ago. You know how many people have come in to register? Zero. Nobody else is probably going to come in to register unless they’re morons like you. Go home.”

That’s almost enough to make Jia stand up and run out the door but she stops herself. If she can’t stand up to the detective how is she going to stand up to criminals? “You may be right that Napa doesn’t really need a vigilante, but I kind of want to do it anyway. I may not be saving people from major criminals but I still think I can help. According to the act I have a right to do that. That’s the whole point. Now what do we need to do?”

The man sighs and puts his head in his hands. “I don’t fucking know kid. They didn’t send us much, just an email with some stuff about a web site. I haven’t even looked at it. Why would I need to? Nobody in this city wants to be a vigilante or has any need to be a vigilante.”

Jia grows in confidence as the man seems to be breaking down. “Well at least one person in this city wants to be a vigilante. Me. Pull up the email, I’ll be glad to take a look and help you.”

Reluctantly doing as she asks, the detective can’t seem to locate the email. Jia suggests checking his trash folder and there they find it. From the looks of everything else sitting in the folder this guy never empties the thing. Jia’s glad for his laziness. The email gives full instructions on how to log into a web site and register someone. It even has login details for their precinct.

Walking Florence through logging in only takes a moment and the form doesn’t need a lot of information. It asks only the basics about the person registering like their name and a few other vitals. It’s a standard government form but stripped down. The only slightly weird thing about the form is how prominently it asks for any alias the person plans to go by.

Jia provides all of this as the detective sighs and his face turns green. “Look kid, I really don’t want to deal with vigilantes. It’s hard enough out there when cops have to deal with criminals. I don’t need another element. Stand down on this.” Jia’s not quite sure what to say so she just stares at the detective. He takes her silence as an answer and with another sigh enters all of her information. He turns to Jia and points at his screen. “Is that all right?”

At the last minute she decides to add a possible alias. “Just one more thing, under alias, put down Serenity.”

The man makes a face of disgust. “Stupid kids and their stupid names.” He enters it though and hits submit.

A form pops up on the screen, which he prints and shoves in Jia’s face. “Here you go kid. You’re registered I guess. Go stop a mugger or something.”

Jia takes it and manages to thank the man before making her way out of his office. As she leaves she can feel the receptionist staring at her but she ignores it.