Chapter 59: Wanted Vigilante

'Fourteen to go. I need to take these guys out quickly. Less they start shooting, and innocent people get caught in the crossfire.'

Harvey thought as he scanned the crowd of gangsters on the dark neighborhood street. Looking to the right, he saw a male officer and a man on the ground. Great, Another challenge to this situation. 

All around them were homes with families. He could count how many souls were in each house. The closer homes even had people watching them from their windows.

'I need to take them all out before they even have the chance to draw a gun.' With that, Harvey moved.

One of the gangsters ran up to him but received a lightning-fast one-two combo. Harvey then split his attention to another man who tried to rush him. Turning to him, Harvey delivered a fast right punch at the man's face, knocking him away. Dashing back to his right, Harvey threw a strong right backhand to finish off his original assailant, who recovered from his punch combo. 

Ever since his strength grew to superhuman levels, Harvey had to be extremely careful in how much force he used on criminals and thugs. While he punished their souls for their sins, he never outwardly tried to kill them—at least those who did minor crimes at least.

Seeing movement to his left, Harvey saw a gangster start to run at him but received a heavy forward kick to the stomach, knocking him away. Running forward, Harvey unleashed a powerful three-punch combo onto a frozen gangster, causing him to fall back into one of their vehicles. Soon, another man tried to draw a gun from his waistline but received a spinning back kick to the face. Without pause, Harvey spun once again and kicked another gangster who tried to sneak up behind him.

Dashing forward, Harvey kicked a man's legs, causing him to fall awkwardly on the ground. Harvey turned his head and saw four men try to rush him together. Without hesitation, Harvey jumped high into the air and performed a gravity-defying series of kicks that landed perfectly across all four men's faces—knocking them out cold.

With three opponents left, Harvey put his hands behind his back and summoned two batons. With a lightning-fast throw, the batons flew directly at the heads of two gangsters. Knocking them out cold.

Looking over at the last gangster, Harvey noticed that it was the one who spoke to the officer before he walked up to them all. The dark-skinned man looked shocked and scared at what he just did; the officer himself looked at him wide-eyed. In the officer's hands was his gun, but it was currently pointed down at the ground. The officer shook his head and pointed his gun at him.

"Stop right there! Hands in the air!" Harvey looked at the officer's chest and saw his name printed on the front.

"I said, Hands in the air!" Officer Bradford yelled again and took a tentative step forward. 

Harvey simply stood still and finally raised his hands up. Of course, he had no fear of the weapon, but it was best to set the officer at ease. "…easy there, Officer Bradford. I'm just here to help."

"Down to the ground, Vengeance!" Bradford then glanced at the gangster. "You too, Keon. On the ground!"

Harvey watched as the now-named gang member, Keon, numbly nodded and lay down on the ground. Hands over his head. The officer then slowly walked over to Keon; all the while, he pointed his weapon at him and cuffed him. Once he was done, he took a few steps forward to him.

"Control, 07-Adam-19, I have Vengeance in my sights. I need immediate backup and an airship at my location immediately!"

"I'm not going to repeat myself, Vengeance. Get on the ground, hands behind your head. Or I will shoot." Bradford said seriously and stared him down.

"…The men that were stationed behind the home have been dealt with already as well." Harvey told the officer, whose eyes quickly shifted back. "I'm here to help get that escaped prisoner back into your custody."

What he said was true. Before confronting all the men he just knocked out, Harvey made sure to take out the men who were waiting out behind the house. It was just six of them, so it was easy enough to knock them all out stealthily.

Seeing movement from the house, Harvey saw another officer walking towards Bradford. Gun in hand. This officer was a woman with black hair who seemed to be of Asian descent. Bradford turned to her, annoyance on his face.

"What are you doing out here, Boot? I need you to watch over Gibson." Bradford chastised the female officer. Harvey looked at the name on the female officer's jacket, Chen. She must've been watching the last escaped prisoner inside the home.

"I cuffed him to the stairs handrail. He's not going anywhere." Chen looked over at him and swallowed. "Is… is that him?"

"Yeah, be on guard. He's extremely dangerous." Bradford walked forward. Apparently, having his partner here gave him a boost of confidence. "Get down, now! Last warning!"

Harvey perked up at the slowly approaching sound of helicopter blades. It seemed that backup for the officers was coming. With that in mind, it was time for Harvey to leave. Harvey dropped his hands and looked at Bradford. This action didn't sit well with the officer.

"HEY! HANDS U-!" 

VROOOOM

Harvey smirked as his flaming motorcycle sped straight towards him from behind the two officers. The loud noise caused both police officers to turn around in surprise and look at the high-speed self-driving bike moving toward them. 

Both officers jumped to the side to avoid the bike lest they be hit. With a perfectly timed jump, Harvey landed on his bike and sped away. Looking up, he saw the police helicopter fly over to the area he was just in. It was time to disappear. Other police vehicles and backup would soon swarm the main roads of this area. Harvey vanished into the darkness by switching off the lights and fire on his bike.

•••

"You… can't be serious?"

Rookie Officer John Nolan couldn't help but be confused by his friends' reactions to his question. Who would have thought that what he asked was common knowledge? "I'm afraid I am. Who's Vengeance?"

"Vengeance is one of the most notorious vigilantes in Los Angeles history. He's wanted on several hundred accounts of assault and battery and for inflicting an unknown condition that leaves his victims incoherent." Fellow rookie Jackson West, a friend he made while in the academy, told him very animatedly. "Nolan, This guy managed to evade the intelligence unit! They're the elites of the elites."

"Wow, I didn't know this guy was so famous." John was surprised to hear everything regarding Vengeance, to think that a single vigilante could acquire such notoriety. He wasn't sure if he should be impressed or scared.

"Lucy, you said you saw the guy. What was he like?" Jackson looked over at their friend, Lucy, who was also a rookie officer. They were all in the police station's briefing room for their morning meeting. It was still a few minutes before Sergeant Grey, their watch commander, started today's morning announcements.

"Well, he definitely dresses the way the intelligence unit and several eyewitnesses described, " Lucy said as she leaned forward on their table and intertwined her fingers. "But I've never seen anyone fight the way he did. It was amazing, almost unbelievable. He took out fourteen men all by himself in the span of two minutes."

"Two minutes? That can't be right?" Jackson shook his head and looked unconvinced.

"It was actually one minute and forty-five seconds." The rookie trio turned their heads to see Lucy's training officer, Tim Bradford, look straight ahead at nothing as he sat back with his arms crossed. "Not two minutes."

"I still can't believe you let him get away." Officer Angela Lopez shook her head as she looked over to Bradford. "You must be losing your touch."

"I'm not losing my touch. Whatever trick he did helped him distract us enough to let him run off." Officer Bradford shook his head disappointingly as he looked to the front of the room.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." John looked over to his TO, Talia Bishop, as she tried to comfort Bradford in her own way. "This is Vengeance, after all. He's harder to catch than anyone else this department has ever seen."

John's eyes widened at what his TO said regarding Vengeance. From that point, several other officers started talking about their own personal stories regarding the vigilante.

"Alright, people. That's enough." John turned to Sergeant West as he walked into the room. "it's time for morning announcements. Now, to start off…" 

John honestly didn't know how he felt about possibly encountering the hooded criminal. He hoped he could go through his entire career without ever meeting the vigilante.

•••

"Wait, your parents left you alone to go to Las Vegas?" 

Harvey asked the Dunphy siblings as the four sat in the Dunphy household's living room. Alex nodded as she continued to type away on her laptop. "Yeah, and not just them. Uncle Mitch and Cam also went."

"Grandpa and Gloria went along as well." Haley sat next to him and gave him a virgin piña colada. Harvey thanked her and took a sip of the drink. It was pretty good. "Leaving me in charge."

"Wow, well, I hope they all enjoy their vacation." Harvey nodded and looked at Luke doing push-ups on the floor. "Good form."

"Ugh, Thanks!"

"Hey, where are Wanda, Amy, and Pietro?" Alex glanced over from her laptop and looked at him questioningly. 

"Wanda and Pietro left for San Francisco to see the sights. Amy decided that her mini vacation had to come to an end. She's out doing what she does best. Helping people." Harvey smiled as he stood up and walked over to stand behind Alex. Looking down, he saw her typing long lines of code. 

"Really? Are they flying or taking a car there?" Haley asked as she walked over and looked down at the laptop, only to be confused at what she saw. She must not know what code is.

"Oh, I just opened a portal for them." Harvey said nonchalantly as he finished the sweet drink. "Haley, is there any more?"

"Wait!" Luke jumped up and walked over to the three with a shocked look. Alex and Haley looked at him with shocked expressions. Turning to them all, Harvey was confused as to why they were staring at him like that. "You... can make portals?"

"Yeah? Oh. Did I forget to tell you all that I could do that?" Harvey said with a wince as he prepared for the incoming yells from his friends. He couldn't believe he had forgotten to tell them about that ability of his.

"NO!"

From that point, Harvey was bombarded with questions regarding his ability to create portals to any location on the planet. Of course, Alex started listing off the long list of possibilities his ability opened up. On the other hand, Haley began to list all the locations they could all go to on vacation. Luke tried to convince him to take him to Buc-ees in Florence, South Carolina.

Harvey could only sigh and smile at his friends. Tonight would be a long night, but he would not trade it for anything.