Civic Duties (anyone)

[Leroy]

Leroy was walking back to the apartment after a late night trip into town with some of his new group members. Their last stop had been at a mini-mall and they had all decided they would make it home on their own, whenever they were done at t he mall. Leroy wasn't really the shopping type, so he did not stay for too long.

Now, as he walked past an alley, he heard some noise coming from one of the buildings. It wasn't loud, but it caught his attention so he took a few steps into the dark space. As he scooted around a dumpster and his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he quickly slunk backwards and crouched between the dumpster and the garbage can. There were two people wearing ski masks loading stuff into the back of a van.

What should I do? Leroy wondered. He didn't have a cell phone to call the police with, but he didn't just want to ignore these crooks either. They would probably leave before he could go find a phone somewhere else, and then they couldn't be caught. What should I do? he wondered again. Then he saw one of his teammates walking past the alley, so he tried to get their attention by waving his arms and motioning them to come over to his hiding spot quietly.

[Johnny]

"Crap. No bus money. Guess my new ability is going to come in handy." Johnny said to nobody as he was walking towards the bus stop after he had left the mall. He was planning on morphing the gecko and stealing a ride home when he saw Leroy in an alley, frantically waving his arms.

As he strolled over he said, "What's up Le--" He clamped his lips shut as he saw masked men loading a truck. He jumped to the side of the alley and landed against the wall. Then he silently slid down until he was sitting on the ground. He asked, "Um, what's going on here?"

[Leroy]

"I think they are burglars," Leroy whispered. That should have been obvious, but he still felt compelled to tell someone. He hoped that they hadn't been seen because he had no idea what he would do if the crooks found out they were there.

"What should we do?" he asked. "We can't just let them get away, but if we leave to go get help, they will probably be long gone before we can do anything." Leroy was thinking that maybe they could follow the van to their hideout, but how could they keep up with it?

[Johnny]

"No duh," Of course they were robbers. Why else would they be wearing masks and loading stuff into an unmarked vehicle? Kind of obvious. He leaned his head out in the open for two seconds before retracting it. They were starting to close the doors. That meant that whatever they did, they would need to do quickly.

"Um, okay. We can't let them escape. We must do sometihng aboutt his. After all, isn't that what SPECTER "hired" us for?" Johnny said. Speaking of SPECTER, Johnny remembered soemthing else. Something that should have been way more obvious. What did the two of them have in common? They could morph. They could morph an animal that would have no problem hitching a ride on a van.

John snapped his fingers and then remembered to not make noise. He whispered his idea to Leroy. "I know! We morph! A weevil and gecko can stick to a van, right?"

[Leroy]

"You're a genius," Leroy whispered as he began his transformation. He ducked back even further into his hiding spot so that he wouldn't be seen by people walking past. They were supposed to keep their abilities a secret. The fact that he was shrinking pretty quickly helped with this as well.

A disturbing though surfaced in Leroy's mind as he became more bug than human. <<Make sure you don't eat me, okay.>> He said it in all seriousness. As the last of the changes occurred, Leroy wondered how he would find the vehicle with bug vision. He would just have to figure it out as he went along.

[Johnny]

"I know I am," Johnny said. he actually didn't take his own idea until he saw Leroy shrinking. He slapped his forehead as he mentally chastised himself for not morphing as well. Something so simple. So he thought about the lizard he could now become.

Pebble-like scales began sprouting, like a really bad case of pimples. Then his eyes bulged out and his mouth grew. Then his arms and legs shriveled up until they were only inches long. Soon, he was a gecko and crawling around in the outer layers of his clothes. He would definitely come back, even if only for the shoes. <<Eat you?>> Johnny asked. <<I would never do such a thing.>> Meanwhile, he tried not to think about how easy it would be to give in and just...

The gecko shook its head and began scampering towards the van.

[Leroy]

As soon as he got out of his pile of clothes, Leroy took to the air. He was glad that he had opted to wear the simple morphing outfit he had found in his room under his clothes, because he had completely forgotten that most clothing was unmorphable. He did not want to end up naked at the house of a burglar. Not that his morphing outfit was a whole lot better in such a situation.

<<The van is that big light blob, right?>> Leroy flew towards it just as he felt a bunch of vibrations fill the air. He assumed that it meant that they had started the vehicle. Just as he landed on what he assumed was the front bumper, he was pretty sure that the thing started to move. Although he couldn't be too sure.

<<Are you on?>> he asked Johnny. <<I can't see a thing.>>

[Johnny]

There was a lot of trash in the alley. And it didn't smell that great either. Especially since Johnny's nose was maybe an inch off the ground. Which made him want to get on the van all the more. He finally made it to the wheel and climbed up the hubcap until he was off the wheel and on the wall of the van. And not a moment too soon because the van then started to move.

<<If the light blob is moving, then, uh, yeah, it's the van. If it isn't moving it's the neon sign above a door right besides the van.>> Johnny said. <<And yes, I am on. Thank God for the gecko's feet. And there isn't too much to see. The van is just starting up...no, wait...it's moving now. They're backing up. Hang on.>> He said a little redundantly to Leroy. OF course he was going to hang on.

[Leroy]

(OOC: Hope you don't mind me skipping most of the driving)

Leroy didn't respond at first because he was busy making sure that he was in a spot where he wouldn't get blown off. As the vehicle changed directions and started moving forward, all he said was, <<I hope we don't have to go too far.>> Even a little bit of wind made it hard for him to grip the metal of the bumper.

After what seemed like forever, it seemed they had finally stopped. Leroy doubted it was more than ten or twenty minutes, but it was long enough for him. <<Are we there? Is there a place to demorph?>>

[Johnny]

((Not at all. xP ))

Johnny scrambled up higher on the van until he was lying on the roof. He then responded to Leroy, <<So do I. I didn't have any money for a bus and now we will have to go back for our clothes. One of us really needs a bird or something.>> Johnny would have to make arrangements to feed the parrots at the shop this week. Wings would be very useful.

Then the van began to move. The duo had gotten on the van in the nick of time. The whole time had been pretty cool for Johnny. He was at the edge of the roof at the very back of it, looking at everything the van passed on its trip. Of course, the view would have been better if his eyes were. Everything became blurry after about fifty feet. Then the ride stopped. Officially. They weren't at a red light or anything this time. And the masked men were now unloading the loot. Johnny had an amazing view now. They were literally right under his nose.

<<Yep, Leroy. We've stopped. The men are unpacking now. Maybe you can demorph in front of the van or something. We're in some kind of garage. I'll remain in morph for now.>>

[Leroy]

So they were in a garage, huh? hopefully he would be able t find a nice dark corner to demorph in. Since Johnny said the thugs were at the back of the van, and Leroy was on the front bumper, it wasn't too hard to figure out which way to fly.

He made his way to a corner of the garage that was away from the back of the van. He guessed that this wasn't their first burglary judging by all of the junk that he flew over. He eventually found a nice open space underneath some stuff where he decided to try demorphing. <<Okay. I'm going to change back now. Let me know if they can see me, or if anything else bad is about to happen.>> Leroy was really nervous, but he focused on his human form regardless.

[Johnny]

<<Aye, aye, Leroy.>> Johnny said. He kept his eyes trained on the men as they slammed the doors shut. There weren't many boxes. Only about four of five. But they obviously had something important enough to steal in them. And that got Johnny's interest.

The men both picked up a box and began walking towards the front of the van. Johnny skittered over the top of the van to keep track of where they were as he told Leroy. <<Leroy! Hide or remorph. They're coming back! I'll distract them meanwhile.>> Johnny then leaped off the van, even though his toe pads wanted to stay on it.

He fell. THen landed on one of the men's head. THere was a yell and the man reached back with a hand (after he dropped his box) and attempted to knock Johnny off. The gecko saw it coming and ran around the burglar's head, staying on his face. Meanwhile, the other robber stood there laughing. And neither one were looking in the front of the garage.

[Leroy]

Leroy was mostly human by the time Johnny gave the warning. He wouldn't have time to remorph. That left the option of hiding.

It turned out that Leroy was underneath a couple of sawhorses with boards stacked on top of them. There was some junk piled up in front of this makeshift table, but not enough to hide him completely.

While the burglars were distracted by the lizard, Leroy crammed himself into the corner and tried to quietly place some objects in front of him. From this place he could see the crooks without them seeing him (very easily). One of them was bald with a big mustache, and the other had a huge nose and chin. He wanted to tell Johnny that he was safe, but he couldn't exactly say anything without the robbers hearing as well. So he waited.

[Johnny]

THis is so fun!Johnny thought. He was racing all over a man's(is that alright?) face. And he was dodging two massive hands that were running all over the face as well, trying to trap him. Well, he did get caught a few times. but he climbed away before the guy could get a good grip.

"Dang it Bernnie! Help me with this lizard!" the man shouted as he started banging into stuff. Johnny caught a quick glimpse of the other man. He was almsot doubled over with laughter. Johnny then started running around fancier and then started running down the guy's chest. AFter all, he had an audience now.

As he was racing across the guy's chest again, he saw the dim light in the garage glint of of something. Something shiny. Curious, he stopped, forgetting what was going on. There were bracelets, necklaces, earrings, diamonds, rubies, and all kinds of jewelry lying in the box that the man had dropped. <<God! THese guys ripped off a pawn shop or something! THe boxes are full of jewels and stuff!>>

THat was the last he got out as a gigantic hand slammed down on his back. Then, telephone-pole sized fingers jabbed under him and pried him off the rough fabric on the man's shirt. THe fist lifted him up and he caught a quick glance at the person's face. A toothy grin full of yellow teeth looked back and then with a rush of air, Johnny was flown to the side.

AFter what seemed like twenty minutes (althoguh it might've been a few seconds), he hit the wall curled up. He bounced off of it and fell to the ground, landing with a loud thump to him.

<<I'm okay,>> he said weakly to Leroy. He was definitely lying. He fervently hoped his distraction had worked. It had better of worked. Johnny was in too much pain for it too have been for nothing.

THen he heard a lot of rustling and then he heard the two men leave the room.

[Leroy]

As soon as the two jewel thieves left the room and Leroy was pretty sure they weren't coming right back, he went out to check on Johnny. That guy had thrown him pretty hard. It took Leroy a little while to navigate out of his hiding spot, but he eventually escaped.

"Johnny. You alright?" he whispered. It did not take him long to spot the lizard on the ground. "I think you had better demorph. They could be back at any second."