Unnatural Disasters

Organized Crime

It was about 4 a.m. and Angel was up. No surprise there, she really didn't sleep all that much. It was a waste of time to her. The living room of her apartment was dark, the only light source was the light her computer screen was emitting. She was on a pretty questionable website, well, a website on the dark web to be exact. She had been searching most of the night, for such an accomplished criminal organization they were hard to find on the dark web. Angel clicked on wormhole after wormhole in search of them. Suddenly her apartment door burst open, light from the hallway spilled into the dark living room. Angel shouted in surprise and stood up. The silhouette in the doorway was Kyle. 
"What the actual fuck Kyle?" Angel scowled and stood up, walking over to the light switch and flicking it. Kyle had four pictures in his hand. 
"I'm so sorry but I figured something out." Kyle lined up all the pictures on the coffee table and pointed to them. Angel looked at him and shook her head in confusion. "The circles of the peace sign, they're exact circles, like perfect circles. If they were just spray painting them they wouldn't be as perfect. So, I dug a little deeper into it." Kyle began talking extremely fast, waving his hands around while he did so.
"Can this wait til.. morning. Like, later morning?" Angel rubbed her eyes. 
"Just listen. The circumference of the circle is 74.0060 inches, and the length of the top line on the peace symbol is 40.7128 inches." Kyle waved his hands, trying to will her to understand what he was saying. 
"40.7128876 and 74.00609876 are the latitude and longitude coordinates of the nuclear power plant that got attacked second. The peace symbols tell where the next attack is going to be." Angel finished for him. Damn the kid is smart, he drew those conclusions all on his own. Angel would give a firm nod. "We know where the next attack is going to be." 
"Not only that, we know when. It confused me on why some of the peace symbols were turned and one was facing straight up, a group that obssessed with details must have some meaning. The one facing straight up could be read as 12:00, the first attack was estimated to start at noon exactly. The others show times as well." Kyle shook his hands as he spoke. He was surprised Angel could understand him, when he rambled he talked really fast.
"Wow, okay. I've underestimated you." Angel took out her phone and called the others, explaining what they found out. The rest of them showed up a couple hours later, the sun was starting to rise and light flooded into her apartment from the windows. 
"So we're going to call in an anonymous tip to law enforcement right?" Charles asked Angel.
"What? Of course not, we'll catch them ourselves." Angel rolled her eyes, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Charles narrowed his eyes. 
"Okay one, that is the hottest thing you've said so far. Two, that is also like, super illegal." Diego crossed his arms and looked pointedly at Angel.
"Can we blow them up?" Hajime bounced up and down like a child on christmas day. 
"Law enforcement will probably just find a way to mess it up, and they have a bunch of legal steps they've got to go through. They most likely won't get their in time. Besides, we're all intelligent human beings, we can do a much better job. I have faith in you all." Angel said somewhat wholesomely. 
"Just so you know, you sound like a fortune cookie." Diego huffed and threw his arms up in the air. "Okay so how are we going to do this?" 
"Bombs! There's tons of different ways to make explosives, I've got most of what we need at m-" Hajime was cut off by Charles. 
"I think we're trying to cause less damage." Charles looked at Angel, expecting her to come up with a plan on the spot. 
"Well, it's 9 a.m. We have 10 hours to come up with a plan, get supplies for the plan, and beat the Peace Makers there." 

"The 5 super intelligent ninjas snuck through the hallways. The lights were flickering like some sort of horror movie setup. Diego threw a cannister of gas into the room where they knew the group of arsonists already were. He heroically stomped in the room with his gas mask on and tied them all up. Diego saved the day and-" 
"That was the stupidest fucking thing I have ever heard." Hajime interrupted Diego's very detailed plan on how they were going to thwart the evil-doers. 
"Seriously, that sounds like a plan that a five year old would come up with." Charles added, shrugging his shoulders. 
"Well I don't see anyone else coming up with a plan." Diego grumbled and leaned back on the couch. He crossed his legs and stuck his tongue out at Hajime.
"Boys, behave or I will ground you both." Angel said while thinking. She was pacing back and forth in front of the coffee table. Kyle was very against this whole ordeal. He felt they should just hand it over to law enforcement and stop wasting time. 
"Alright, I have an idea. I will text you guys the details in a few. For now, just relax and try not to shit yourselves." Angel looked pointedly at Charles and Kyle. Charles and Kyle shared a confused look, why did she look at them two specifically? Hajime and Diego snickered. 

Later that day, six masked men with duffle bags in their hands ran quickly down the halls inside the power plant. They entered the main control room with guns in the air. They quickly gained control of the workers. Working efficiently, they tied them up and put them against the wall. They worked efficiently. Anyone could easily deduce that they had done this multiple times before. One of the workers was cutting through the twist ties on his wrists.  It was Diego. Diego watched and waited for the right moment. The arsonists began setting up the fireworks all around the room. Preparing to set it on fire. Hajime walked into the room. All the guns were immediately pointed at him. He held his hands up.
"You know you could maximize the effiency of the chemicals in the fireworks by adding more gun powder and less potassium nitrate. That would give a bigger boom but a smaller and more manageable flame." Hajime grinned. The masked men glanced among each other, they were confused. One of them approached Hajime with his gun raised. Diego suddenly jumped up and tackled the guy in the very back, causing the rest to whirl around and figure out what just happened. Angel and Charles took their distraction as an opportunity to burst out of the broom closets, taking out three of them. It was a risky plan, but they all knew what was at stake. Hajime had taken the one closest to him, the four had subdued the masked men with their own twist ties. There was only one masked man left, which Kyle was supposed to have taken down. Kyle was frozen, this wasn't something he was sure he could do. 
"God damn it, Kyle!" Angel shouted. The last masked men took his gun and put it to one of the worker's head.
"You move and the guy dies!" He shouted through his mask. Kyle burst out of the closet and tackled the guy. A loud gunshot rang around the room and Diego rushed over to the three bodies on the ground. There was blood, a lot of it.
"Kyle?!" Diego lifted Kyle up, who was absolutely terrified, but he hadn't been the one shot. Diego grabbed the gun and threw it to the otherside of the room. The blood was from the hostage. Diego shoved Kyle out of the way and tied up the last masked man. Their eyes fell to the casualty on the ground. The body of the guy left a sort of raw feeling in the group. Before it was just fun and games, just puzzles to solve. But now, someone was dead, it made it so much more— real. Angel called 911 and authorities were quick to the scene. Some of the workers vouched to them and said the group saved them from being burned alive. After a few, very long hours of questioning, and the media blinding them with flashing cameras, they all went back to the apartment to collect themselves. 

Kyle walked through the door, visibly shaken up. Charles got the poor kid a glass of water, handing it to him. Angel leaned against the wall, her arms crossed. Her face was unreadable. 
Diego sat on the arm of the couch and Hajime stood in the doorway with an angry look on his face. 
"Everything was going just fine. Until you froze up." Hajime spat at Kyle. Kyle looked up, guilt written all over his face. 
"Hajime, that's a bit uncalled for, don't you think?" Charles reprimanded him slightly. Diego glared at Hajime. Diego didn't know how Hajime could just out right put the blame on Kyle like that. He reacted like any sane person would.
"What? We were all thinking it? What about you Angel, he botched up your plan." Hajime threw his hands up in the air. Angel narrrowed her eyes at him, is that what Hajime thought ticked her off? 
"If this is anyones fault, it is Angel's, the authorities were supposed to do this, not us." Diego growled and directed his visual assault to Angel. Charles was comforting Kyle as best he could. 
"There would've been a 100% fatality rate if law enforcement hadn't gotten there in time. There was a significant chance we would get there in time. It was a calculated risk. We saved all except one worker. It was worth it." Angel was confused at why they were so upset. They saved the day. Ninety-nine percent of the workers went home to their families, and they thwarted a group of criminals.
"It was worth it?!" Diego's voice raised, "His death was worth it? You're a fucking psychopath." Diego stood up, his fists clenched. How the hell could she just say something like that? Charles stood up and cleared his throat. 
"All of you, stop. Angel's actually right, even if she has the wrong idea. Think about the people we saved. Minimal loss was the goal, and we achieved that. Please go home and try and get some rest, we did a good thing." Charles sighed and helped Kyle up, he escorted Kyle home. Diego's face relaxed a bit, he glanced at Hajime and Angel before walking out the door with Hajime close behind him. The four left with something to think about, was it really worth it? Should they do it again? 
"Well. I'm not bored anymore." Angel pushed herself off the wall and went to go find something to eat in the fridge.