Log:Here Comes the Judge

Here Comes the Judge 2020/06/19 	 Night Marshal Grimm

1

Night Marshal mostly picked this area to patrol for a change of pace. Sure, he might need to get more sleep than he does, but life have been...busy. And he needs to just get away from the job for a bit...but still do something. There's no particular target tonight. He's just moving from rooftop to rooftop, patrolling for any issues. Well, and testing his gear.

The night is mostly quiet and the cool air a relief from the day's heat. With any luck, most of the teenage heroes Carpenter's had to deal with are tucked in bed and out of his way.

"...could've killed him!" comes a familiar voice up ahead from some alley. That scolding tone sounds a like like Grimm.

"That was the idea," comes a southern drawl. It sounds like someone trying to steal Night Marshal's schtick! Only the voice sounds older. Gruffer.

Night Marshal furrows his brow and gets to the edge of the rooftop, trying to be relatively quiet as he comes up on it, intending to peer down and see who Grimm is talking to.

Getting to the edge, no one notices Night Marshal. Gabrielle crouches down next to a bleeding man in dark clothes. A gray zip up hoodie, t-shirt, black pants, and rime coating his hands and halfway up his forearm. He's unconscious and bleeding out from a few holes in him. But Night Marshal didn't hear any gunshots.

"Not happening. I'm getting him to a hospital, and then I'm dealing with you," Gabrielle says as she has her back to the man standing with her.

The other man has a western motif. He's dressed in an off-black duster and wide brimmed black cattleman hat. Beneath that is a leather vest and gray button stripped shirt, a black bandana covering his face, a large buckled brown belt, and black jeans with chaps and cowboy boots, complete with spurs. He's got a pistol in each hand, though they look like high tech revolvers. He has a bandolier across his shoulder.

"Can't be having that, little missy. The Judge has already passed sentence," that southern drawling voice replies as he aims his gun for the back of Gabrielle's head while she's trying to stop the bleeding.

Night Marshal draws and shoots at the guy while calling out, "Grimm, dodge left!"

The shot hits the Judge, who got a warning when Night Marshal cried out. He grunts in pain and staggers one step back. He pulls the trigger at Gabrielle as she dodges left at the warning.

Gabrielle can't move fast enough. She avoids getting shot in the back of the head, but she still takes a deadly shot through her chest instead. The shot is quiet, and the bullet path glowed briefly like a tracer round. She's knocked past the person she was trying to help and goes rolling along the ground, coming to a halt on her side.

Grimm has her eyes closed tight in pain. Blood pools out from under her. Her opens blink open, slow to act or move at first. Then she remembers there's still a life in danger. She starts to get up, not as fast she normally would. She flickers and teleports to the unconscious meta, trying to compress her own wound. "I...said...not happening," Gabrielle wheezes.

Based on the look, this guy fits a description of a recent vigilante on the streets. Someone who came after his debut as Night Marshal. This is the Judge, a vigilante who uses deadly force to bring bad guys to justice. He also considers himself judge, jury, and executioner. He works alone and hasn't been seen by the city's metahuman populace before. But organized crime and street criminals certainly learned his name in a short amount of time.

Night Marshal fires again, trying to keep Judge pinned down. If nothing else, he hopes to force the vigilante to go for cover.

The judge uses his gun barrel to tip up his hat as he looks up at Night Marshal. "Well, gosh howdy," the older man says. His eyes are visible, a blueish gray, squinted, with bushy salt and pepper eyebrows and weathered skin with deep wrinkles. "You're shooting at the wrong man, Marshal," he says as he backpedal away from Grimm and the unconscious man, changing the angle so Night Marshal isn't so directly above him. He's aware of his surroundings and backing towards the mouth of the alley. "I could use a good lawman at my side, but I git the feelin' you ain't it." He raises both revolvers. One pointed at Night Marshal, the other pointed at Grimm and the victim. He starts rapid firing at everyone.

Grimm is shot again and knocked away from the person before she can summon some sort of shield to stop the Judge. This time she doesn't get up right away. It takes her a moment to feel around and drag herself to her feet.

Night Marshal's kevlar takes the brunt of the shot, but he gets sent flying backward. He hits the roof and tumbles backward, rollign to his feet again. He mutters to himself, "What the hell kind of gun is that guy packing?"

Night Marshal runs again over to the edge of the building to fire downward at his target...trying to be quick enough to not let him get away. And to hopefully get a quick assessment of the status of everyone else down there.

"Tarnation!" The Judge curses. It stung, but not much else. "You insistin' on being a thorn in my side while I try to carry out justice? Then you're goin' on my wanted list, just like the Little Miss here."

Night Marshal grimaces. "Attempting to execute Grimm isn't justice." He jumps off the roof, gliding down to Judge, trying to close the distance since he's outgunned. He takes a swing with his Taser gauntlet after he lands.

The fist connects. The Judge has some kevlar padding or something underneath that getup. It takes the worst of the blow.

"So that's the little lady's name?" The Judge drawls as he backs up some more. "She obstructed justice tryin' to stop me. Just like you are. I guess that makes two more on the Judge's list," he says gruffly before he starts opening fire on both of them again.

Night Marshal takes the shot without much difficulty that time. The kevlar does its job nicely. . o O (How does he not need to reload yet?)

Grimm next knicked this time in the shoulder and cries out. She puts a bloodied hand on the crook. "S-sorry, Night Marshal...I can't...take another hit," she croaks before she and the crook vanish. She can't take the time to teleport them to the hospital while under fire. So she teleports him just inside the adjacent building.

Night Marshal breathes a sigh of relief as Grimm gets away. But then he grimaces...and advances on Judge again, "I'll do more than get in your way, murderer." This time, he doesnt' go for a simple strike. Instead, he goes to try to disarm one of Judge's pistols.

"Issat so?" the gruff Judge asks, trying to shoot Night Marshal at point blank range.

Night Marshal twists out of the way of hte shot and comes around with another strike with his Taser Gauntlet.

The judge is more spry than he looks. "I look forward to taking that badge from ya and hangin' ya. But not tonight." He knows better than to stick around long in this city. He starts to run around the corner and puts some distance between then, then throws a small glass orb from his bandolier onto the ground to put up a thick cloud of chemical smoke.

The smoke fills up the whole street.

Night Marshal says loudly. "Blast. Of course ye'd be a coward. Shooting people in the back and then running away."

While it's certain the Judge heard that, the old man is patient enough not to retort as he makes his escape.

Night Marshal backs off down the alley, though...not wanting to get shot if his opponent can see through hteh smoke.

The smoke lasts for several seconds before starting to dissipate. There's no sign of the Judge. And the only sign of the victim and Grimm is the blood in the alley. Until one of the back doors lining the open creaks open slowly.

Night Marshal has his gun drawn, but he doesn't open fire. "Grimm, is that you?"

Grimm coughs weakly. "Yeah," she croaks in the darkness of the back room of some shop. There's boxes of inventory around her. She's dropped up against a box. The body of the man who is obvious dead is laying near her. "Couldn't do anything...to save him," she utters in shock.

Night Marshal holsters his weapon and goes to take a look at her wounds to treat them. "This seems to be a habit for you. You need to get your defenses up. And don't turn your back on that guy again."

Grimm remains mostly still as he tends to her wounds, only half lucid. "Won't...make that mistake again," she promises as she closes her eyes to rest a bit. "Thanks for the warning. I just wasn't fast enough," she says with labored breathing. She shows the symptoms of someone in shock.

Night Marshal nods to himself as he look at the wound. "I got the bleeding under control, but you need to go to the hospital. Again." Or the Steinberg Clinic, but he doesn't think of that. He tries to keep her awake by slapping her cheek lightly. "Stay with me here. Can you get yourself to the hospital? Or do we need an ambulance?"

Grimm winces and turns her head from the light slapping. It rouses her a bit more. "I'm here," she says as she tries to focus her thoughts. "I think I can. Just have to concentrate better." She turns her head to the body. "What about him...?"

Night Marshal nods. "I'll stay here and call the police."

Grimm nods weakly, face full of regret. "Thanks for the save, Cowboy." She looks away from him towards an empty space near her. Slowly, a gate starts to form, but it takes a lot of effort and strain on Gabrielle's part, and it opens slower than usual. Finally, there's a black portal big enough to walk through. The center wavers and brightens, revealing the ER on the other side.

Night Marshal helps Grimm through the gate.

Grimm leans on Night Marshal for help. It seems likely she wouldn't be able to walk through herself in the state she's in. The gate remains open as the doctors rush out a gurney to take Gabrielle away.

Night Marshal gets back through the gate as the doctors get to Grimm, "I'll check in on you as soon as I can."

It looks like a bullet version of a red-tipped armor-piercing incendiary tracer round. Similar to the Cape Killer rounds some of the organized crime families are using.

Grimm nods weakly as she's wheeled away. She watches to make sure he's through as they wheel her away. The gate shrinks down and winks out of existence once he's back on the side of the crime scene. The rime on the victim has begun to melt, leaving him around the lower sleeves and his hands.

Night Marshal calls the police about the incident...but while he's waiting for them to arrive, he checks out the man who was killed...seeing if he recognizes him. The frost is an interesting clue.

This guy definitely isn't a metavillain. But examining the body and the dilated eyes and their reddened state, chances are he was dosed with some variant on XS that's on the street that gives random meta powers. Very expensive and hard to obtain if you're just a drug user. But if you're in a gang or crime family? It's a little more accessible.

Night Marshal takes a photo of the guy, to try to make sure he gets an ID later. Sure, the police will ID him as well. But might as well do some personal work on it in the meantime.