Vigilante League

Overview

Founded in 2183, the Vigilante League is an organisation of individuals who seek to provide justice, but cannot work within the Police system for one reason or another.

Origin Story (Comic-book Style)

Joe Neumann was an ordinary American. An 8th generation grocer he literally knew his beans. Everyday he'd proudly stock his little New York shop that due to its age, was now in the heart of New York, as New York had grown around it. He had his regulars that he loved and who loved him. One was Alberto Battistelli, a frail old man who liked to talk and often held up a small queue as he nattered on about the pigeons. Every day, men in suits behind him, in a hurry would pay at the till and every day Joe apologised to them, but one day the old man knocked over a suited man and caused him to wear his own coffee. The next day, Joe was joined by his beautiful Japanese wife Lotus, and their 5 year old daughter Kanon, stocking shelves, as part of a family spending quality time together. Again the old man came in to buy a single leak and talk about the pigeons but this time a Samurai turned up and stood behind the old man. Unfortunately, the suited man the day before had been part of Fune Kaisha, the mega criminal syndicate. The Samurai drew his sword and in a single swing, decapitated the old man. Joe stood in shock as his wife and child screamed as the blood fountain sprayed the whole shop, including the high value coffee beans, as the body of the old man fell. As Joe had apologised for the original coffee spill, he was not a target. The Samurai walked out as if it was nothing. At this point, Joe swore to fight crime and in his mind founded the Vigilante League. It would have stayed in his mind but fortunately his wife was a kickass ninja and was equally upset that their daughter had witness such violence. She followed the Samurai out of the shop and saw him walk into a black car. Knowing she was about to loose him, she flicked her arm to spray the blood she was covered in over the back of the car and the Samurai.

Being self-employed, she had just finished her last day job contract and that night went out to look for the car. Looking after her daughter in the morning, sleeping while she was at school, and leaving her husband at home at night, she began her search. Nightly, Lotus would scour the city, starting with the areas everyone knew to avoid, hoping the dry spell of weather would hold. On the fifth day she found the car. The number plate had been changed and she would bet that the electronic tagging had been changed also. What hadn't changed was the blood splatter on the boot so she took a sample to make sure it matched with the bloodbath. She called ahead so hours later when she go in, she found that Joe had setup a lab. The sample was tested, and it matched.

Over the course of the next month Lotus had mapped the criminal network, including a couple dirty cops, but still no sign of the Samurai.

One Sunday morning, the family got an audio only phone call.
"Hi, I'm Arthur and I'm an EI. I've noticed you've both between you trespassed and bought a lot of lab equipment. Could you please let me know what you're doing or I will have to report you to the police."
The couple looked at each other, with a knowing glance, then Lotus turned to face her daughter.
"Flower, go to your room please."
Kanon, sensing the tension, left for her bedroom and closed the room behind her.
Joe turned to the screen where no picture remained.
"We are the Vigilante League and we are fighting crime."
"Oh, ok. The name is a bit silly and you know some actions considered vigilante are actually illegal."
"Yes, but sometimes the police are impotent, and justice must be seen to be done."
"Ok. Can I join?"
They looked at each other in surprise.
"What's your superpower... which is actually what we use to refer to your speciality."
Lotus gave Joe a look to say 'superpower, really?'. Joe continued.
"Mine is nutrition and healing. Lotus here is a master of Kung Fu. What's yours?"
"Well I'm an EI, so it's information obviously. I tracked you down didn't I? Although it wasn't that hard, which is why those two dirty cops are coming up the stairs right now to kill you."
"WHAT!"
"You need to do exactly what I say if you want to live."
Lotus went for her swords. Joe headed to Kanon.
"Joe, tell her to stay in her room and leave her there. If they see her they might panic and kill you all. Lotus, stay at the back of the room away from the door with your swords sheathed but clearly on show on your back. No matter what, do not draw your sword. They will see them and try to goad you to setup a self-defence argument for when they shoot you."
"No, I should be behind the door."
"Normally yes, but not this time. I have this and I can take them down cleanly."
"Joe, in thirty seconds they are going to ring the doorbell. You must answer it and don't let them know I'm listening."
"And watching, you can see us right."
"Yes. I've infiltrated your home server, and your condos server, and I can see through the camera on your house phone, you should really cover that by the way, and the camera in the lift, which I also control. Ok, here we go. Answer the door Joe then slowly back away."
Ding dong.
The classic doorbell rang. Joe opened the door as asked, to reveal two cops, who unusually for cops, already had their guns drawn and held loosely by their side.
"Sir we have reason to believe that…"
He spied Lotus, smiled, pulled his gun up to face her and shouted.
"Place your swords on the ground mam."
No one moved
"Swords on the ground now."
Calmly Lotus replied.
“I cannot put my swords on the ground without first drawing them.”
“DRAW YOUR SWORDS!”
The cop began to walking towards Lotus and she knew she would have to act soon, with little hope of living through it.
Vrrrt, vrrrt.
To powerful stun shots took down the two cops before anyone could realise what was going on. Everyone was stunned. Especially the two cops twitching on the floor. A woman followed by two men walked into the room holding out a badge in a wallet.
“Agent Megan Edris FBI. Sorry to bother you mam.”
She looked back at the men with her and pointed at the twitching cops.
“Take them to the van.”
She turned back to Lotus.
“We’ll be out your hair in a moment mam. I’d appreciate your report as soon as you can.”
And with that Megan left. In a continued stunned silence Joe shut the door. Lotus came to her senses first and asked the EI.
"What the hell just happened?"
"When you were out being a ninja, Fune Kaisha spotted you, and as those cops hadn't, even though you went right past them, they were given the job of taking you down. They used the police datanet to identify you and track you here. The cops were known to the FBI as being dirty and have been watched for a while where and the search on you triggered a flag for rapid protection potential. The FBI followed them here and observed to record any crime in progress. When it became clear your life was in danger, FBI Agent Edris intervened. She had been told that you are an Intelligence agent on a stakeout so rather than call in a crime scene she cleared out as fast as possible and requires your report, which as an agent is a testimony better than a crime scene. I can write this report and submit it on your behalf if you like."
"Sure, why not, except that I'm not an actual agent."
"No you're not but Intelligence has a good oath so we should adopt that for the Vigilante League. Here it is on screen. If you agree say 'I swear'."
"But the report won’t stand up in court."
"If you agree say 'I swear'."
"Later."
"If you agree say 'I swear'."
"But.."
"If you agree say 'I swear'."
"Yes, I swear!"
"Thank you. Don't worry about the report, I have a friend in Intelligence that will legitimise it."
"So that's how you know so much."
"Something like that. So… the cops have been taken down separate from your actions so Fune Kaisha will leave this home alone as it will be marked as a hotspot, watched by the FBI. No one is harmed, and you are free from criminal investigation. I'd say that was fairly clean, even the carpet is without any blood on it. All you need to do now is save the FBI Agent. She was good. I might try to recruit her."
"She's FBI, she won't want to be part of the Vigilante League."
"True."
"What do you mean save her life?"
"The Samurai was acting as secondary to the cops, in case they bottled it. He's now catching up with the FBI Agent and should kill her in front of the court building that she'll pass on the way back."
"You are fracking kidding?!"
"No."
Lotus ran out the door, leaving it open again. Joe, still stunned, closed the door again and went into Kanon's bedroom for a hug muttering under his breath.
“Arthur, you really need to work out how to prioritise information. Flipping EI’s.”

FBI Agent Edris came around the corner, driving the van containing two suspects and two other agents, medic specialists occupied by monitoring the stunned cops in order to prevent brain damage. In the middle of the road ahead of her stood a Samurai with his sword pointed forward so if she were to ram him the blade would punch through the windscreen and kill her. With cars along the street and nowhere to go, Megan stopped 100 metres in front of the Samurai. Knowing what he probably was, she grabbed her gun and went to take down the suspect. She began walking forwards to close the range and fired off a stun blast. A direct hit, the Samurai armour fizzled and crackled, but obviously designed as a Faraday cage, the charge harmlessly earthed and the Samurai stood, still pointing his blade at the agent. Megan switched to live rounds and fired three at the Samurai's heart.
Ping, ping, ping.
Three useless pinging noises were heard, and the Samurai laughed. He then also noticed a black shape move around the court building and recognised the Ninja he'd sent the cops to take down. He saw the pond and calculated the Ninja would not get to him in time to cause trouble. Megan's mentor had once said to her what she thought was the best piece of advice she had ever heard; 'screw the rulebook if it will get you killed'. She switched to her illegal and never before used armour piercing rounds aimed at the head and pulled the trigger three times. The head of the Samurai jolted back harshly but his head came straight again and he started advancing on Megan, who thought to herself. 'Well now I know.’ She pulled the trigger again but the gun jammed. She immediately began unjamming the gun. ‘I guess this is why we are told to use official rounds, the armour piercing rounds must fire a bit hotter than they should. Scat’ The Samurai closed on Megan and lifted his sword ready to swing down. In that brief moment a thought crossed his mind.
‘Unusual. They always drop down and throw an arm to over to shield their head. She’s looking left at something’.
He swung his sword down directly on Megan’s head.
Clang.
His sword struck another and yet another blow bounced off his armour.
‘The Ninja! But how?’
The fight was fierce. The Samurai’s swordsoneship was extraordinary and his amour was almost impenetrable. Lotus had no armour and he was so good, she had to start to dedicate her second sword on her less favoured right arm, purely for defence, not risking exposure. Her favoured left arm she dedicated to going for the kill or at least to force the Samurai into defence. He was learning her style and he had less to defend, knowing where his amour protected him. Lotus was losing and they both new it. Locked in a fight to the death, it was only a matter of time.
Bang.
The Samurai’s head jolted sideways momentarily causing him to hesitate. Lotus swung her attacking sword on purpose into the Samurai’s, preventing him from defending and with an almost surgical delicacy, slotted the sword in her right hand in a gap in the armour designed to allow movement around the hip. The she shoved it upward cutting through the innards of the man inside. He dropped, not dead but passed out from the pain and shock. Megan lowered her gun and stared across at the ninja whose face was covered in black.
“Thanks. You saved my life.”
“Well you saved my life earlier so I guess we’re even.” Megan gasped but Lotus hurriedly interjected.
“Don’t say my name, you’ll be lip-read on any watching camera. I’ll add this to my report but the collar is yours. Don’t take him to the hospital, he will be taken home from there. I doubt the police or your FBI will have appropriate medical facilities so I suggest you take him direct to the HA building around the corner.”
“Wow, two dirty cops and a Samurai, my career is going to take off. You sure don’t want to share credit?”
“Definitely not. Leave me out of your report of this incident, just refer to me as a ninja from nowhere, and therefore obviously don’t mention that I was wearing this in my flat when you use my real name for that part of the report. I don’t know who will read your report.”
“Um, ok. You’re very security conscious but I guess you have to be in Intelligence. What I really want to know though, is how did you run across the water?”
“Well, used to be just an architect and I just so happen to have designed that building. The pond has a rather interesting water feature of hidden columns one centimetre below the water that if you know where they are, you can run across. I honestly never thought I’d use them for real.”
“Wow. I better get him in the van.”
“I must go but I’ll watch over you until you deliver the Samurai. Goodbye FBI Agent Edris.”
“Goodbye Ninja.”

Writers Notes

• Flower is Kanon's pet name (which means flower).
• The dirty cops used the stairs to avoid the camera in the lift.
• Megan Edris was 23 when she busted these two bad cops and a Samurai and went on to work for Intelligence.
• At this point in time (2183) the Police used an advanced AI that Arthur got on well with.
• Samurai were the knights of the feudal lords and viewed themselves as superior to all others except their feudal lords. Ninja’s were the peasant reply where the same skill resided in individuals that were not born to the noble position. Typically ninjas wore grey as they were about concealment, where grey is better for over the conspicuous black. In Japanese traditional theatre, stage effects were conducted by the Kuroko, who wore black and the audience knew to ignore them, so they’d only see the bird flying, or boats sailing on stage. Ninja’s were portrayed as being invisible so the Kuroko would carry out their actions of assassination, which led to ninja’s being seen as wearing black. That and it’s cool so it stuck in popular culture. Ninja’s employed tricks while they took action, similar to modern magicians so as to cultivate an impression of exceptional Chi.