Neutrality Order (TomBoo)

C. - Chapter 1: A Gentle Approach

"This looks like the place."

Tommy looked at the directions that Skeptic had been kind enough ('Bullied into,' his mind supplied with a side glance at his partner) to give, printed on some paper. Next to him, Ranboo gave the place an unimpressed once-over.

"...this? Overcompensating much, isn't it?" He flicked at an English rose -imported, obviously- with distaste.

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Be nice, Ranboo," he said, "we want them to be open with us, yes?" At Ranboo's stubborn silence, he nudged him. "Yes?"

"Ugh, fine. If only for a hacker who doesn't bitch at us the whole time we ask a favor." His lip curled at the mention of Skeptic, who pissed and moaned every time Ranboo needed something no matter how minor. "Tempted to just eighty-six him once and for all."

As much as Tommy was still uncomfortable with Ranboo's casual snuffing out of anything that displeased him enough, he had to agree that at LEAST Chikazoku had to have an eye kept out on him. A couple of months in and they were still unconvinced that the puppeteer wouldn't betray them at the nearest convenience.

"And it's not just for 'the hacker'. We'd be getting a really good ally and you know it." He stepped up to the front porch and knocked on the door. "...remember, this is recruitment, not intimidation."

"I know how to recruit villains, not my first rodeo."

"Yeah, well...none like this one." Tommy turned from Ranboo, hearing a few locks on the door before it was cracked open, Tommy seeing someone peer out at him from at least two feet lower. "...um, hi, can we talk to -"

"GENTLE!" a girl's voice called back loudly into the house. "CODE GREY!" Tommy didn't even have time to wonder what a 'code grey' would be before the door slammed shut and about four seconds later a window was kicked out and two people jumped out and jumped AGAIN midair.

Ranboo slowly blinked, staring after them. "...nice recruitment."

"Oh shut up." Tommy curled an arm around Ranboo and took a flying leap up after them, using Black Whip to snag around trees and light posts in pursuit.

Ranboo resisted the urge to put up a fuss about the leader of an entire goddamn army of revolution being sidekick-carried in such an undignified manner, but he kept it to himself. He didn't have any means of aerial pursuit of his own, and he was keeping collateral damage to a minimum.

'Gentle Criminal and La Brava', he thought, recalling about a week ago when Tommy showed him those godawful videos with the look of a child about to beg their parent for a stray cat to stay. Still, Tommy had insisted, making him watch more to find the BASIS of the videos, which, after a few more views, Ranboo began to see the sense of.

This 'gentleman thief', after dozens of videos, had yet to be caught. Dozens of heroes, multiples per video sometimes, hadn't apprehended him. And his creed of the videos seemed to be a 'lesser evil' intending to expose corruption the average person would see as 'beneath them'.

Such a simple concept for a villain who was capable of defeating multiple heroes at once. It bordered on vigilantism rather than villainy, but really, everyone was the hero of their own story.

And Tommy wanted to recruit him and his camera mate/partner La Brava.

When Ranboo heard Tommy exclaim as much, he turned to his partner with a blank look. "...Really."

"Yes!"

"Really."

At first, Ranboo found himself wondering what he'd done to piss off whichever god was listening, but decided it would be too much of a headache to figure out which action tipped THAT particular jenga tower. He settled instead on asking, "Why?"

Tommy rolled his eyes. "I dunno, Ranboo, why do you have an ex-stage magician as one of your generals?"

Touche. Compelling enough of an argument for Ranboo to endure having to talk to Skeptic about getting names and addresses to start with before pulling up receipts on both.

SmallishBeans and LDShadowLady, ages 32 and 22 respectively, the former a career criminal for almost a decade now, and the latter having a huge gap of history missing between the end of middle school and barely two years ago. Textbook stuff, really.

What wasn't textbook were the use of videos as a means to get messages out, nor the contents of the videos themselves. Tommy looked through about six of them before it was given a point from Gentle Criminal to 'cut for violence'.

It seemed that Gentle Criminal wanted the videos to focus on the topic of the videos at hand, rather than show off any combat prowess. Little things, 'ungentlemanly behavior', as the criminal called it, that the average 'hero' couldn't be bothered to handle.

"This just sounds like heroism with extra steps," Ranboo intoned after the seventh video, rubbing his fingertips over his neck in thought. "...this guy wanted to be a hero."

"Mm," Tommy hummed assent. "So did Punz. And Karl. But when you don't have the right quirk or the right 'way' to do things..." He sighed, sitting back in his chair. "Either way, he's playing good guy / bad guy for each of these. Heroes to some, villains to others. But this still screams for attention, he has something to say. I want to know what he has to say, and give him a proper audience for it."

".....you just want another quirk analysis, you nerd."

"......shut up, Ranboo."

And so, after weeks of research, a few hours of tracking, and now a chase, Ranboo and Tommy were en route to recruit two new members into the Front. If only they would STOP RUNNING.

Oh well, Ranboo thought, knowing he was going to have a migraine later; Tommy hadn't made many personal requests known out loud for his place in the Front, the notes and ideas galore be damned. He could stand some humoring for THIS, even if it was a goddamn Saturday morning cartoon chase.

But Tommy owed him big for this later. Big time.