genessia | Bounty-Hunting Log; Repair-Man (Attleton) [CLOSED]

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Bounty-Hunting Log; Repair-Man (Attleton) [CLOSED]

Who: Trunks Brief, Bulla Brief, Mai
What: Locating and apprehending the AC-Unit thief in Attleton.
When: Mid-July (Day the Newspaper comes out)
Where: Attleton
Warnings: None yet?

[The newspaper was, as usual, a mix of interesting and not--at least for Trunks. None of the puzzles interested him this time, although he would have to point "The Revise" ad out to Mai along with the coming weather prediction. At first, he'd skimmed the bounties--but when Dante'd posted on the network, Trunks took more of an interest.

Honestly? He hadn't really given much thought to bounty hunting before, beyond looking into it and the basics for Nova City. But stealing AC units in this heatwave was just mean as well as dangerous. The money wasn't really necessary, but would be good to have and start saving...

Which meant finding Mai and Bulla, and asking them to meet him in the living room. Holding the bounty-hunting section out so they can read it.]

I'm on decent enough terms with Attleton's Deputy, as well as have explored it fairly well for not living there--want to help me hunt an AC-unit thief?

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I'm up for it. It's such a jerk move. What's the thief even getting out of this? It's not like they'd make a lot off of selling used AC units.

[One or two going missing because someone wanted to cool their home without paying for a unit at least made sense, even if it wasn't very nice. It would be difficult to prove the theft and it served a functional purpose. But this? This was just stupid and mean.]

Let's stick a sign on them when we catch whoever it is. "I'm the jerk who stole everyone's AC" in big letters. Public shaming seems like a good punishment to me.

[Admittedly, Mai had been mostly curious when Trunks asked for both her and Bulla. She came out to the living room and took a seat on the couch. Fortunately for her curiosity, Trunks got to the point quickly enough. Passing over the newspaper for her to get a good look.]

[And what she saw made her eyes darken for a moment before she turned to Bulla and shook her head.]

I disagree. That can go only one of two ways. Either it has little affect on someone without shame...or else, in this heat, too many people might take a risk to get their vengeance.

We should just catch them and hand them over to people who can make sure they're punished properly and safely.

It's also not our job to punish them, even if we weren't concerned about potential vengeance. Our job will be to catch whoever's doing it, preferably without killing them unless it's self-defense on our part--

[Which was highly unlikely given Bulla and Trunks' capabilities. Even without them, Mai was her own threat and probably wouldn't need any help with self-defense unless something went drastically wrong.]

--and with minimal to zero property damage. Attleton doesn't require licenses like Nova City, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try and be professional about this.

[Leaning against the back of the couch, arms crossed. Time to start planning.]

We find them, we catch them, we turn 'em in to the Guardian's office. Normally I'd say we don't take the reward, but I know Mom's planning to quit Aster Tech soon to focus on Capsule Corps here, and I also know what our food budget is like.

[Bulla can't help but smile a bit at the mention of the Guardian. She had a good little chat with Dante about this.]

Fair enough. Fortunately, Attleton's Guardian seemed to like a suggestion I made. I suggested that the thief be put on dunk tank duty and that the money raised from the dunk tank go to helping people with the cost of replacing their AC units. Then people have an outlet for revenge and the money will help others.

[Her grin broadens as she adds,]

He even thought of an improvement for the dunk tank - warm orange pop instead of water.

[Perhaps he wasn't serious and would go a more professional route in the end, but Bulla appreciates that he was willing to at least listen to the suggestion rather than shutting it down.]

Who knows if he'll actually use it, but I'll stay professional while we're working on this and just hope he does.

[While Bulla was busy smiling at the mention of Dante, Mai was busy looking a mixture of amused and pleased when Trunks referenced the food budget. Both because she knew well what the appetite of one Saiyan could be like, and because it was further evidence that Trunks was eating more.]

[As evident by the fact that she no longer had to shove food at him. Because there was enough to go around now.]

That's...one way of handling things.

[She actually resisted a small bout of laughter at the mental image, quickly brushing it aside in attempt to maintain some aura of professionalism.]

At a minimum, we should focus on cutting off any attempts at escaping to Nova City. [Really, her only concern. They were trying to play by the rules, and that would be the one loophole preventing them from accomplishing their goal.] Do we know roughly where in Attleton they might be, and how easy it would be for them to slip through?

If they can slip through to Nova, they can slip through to anywhere, given they have to use the gate to get to Genessia City as the hub. More likely if they try to 'escape' they'd use one of the sub-archways in Attleton.

[Thinking aloud here, and he offered a smile for; for both his sister and Mai. He wasn't surprised Bulla had contacted Dante herself. Mai was also thinking about the same things he had been.

They could all do this.]

Dante didn't seem to have any hints, even in his underworld connections, right away so probably our best place to start is head to Attleton. I believe they have a way of watching the gate, if I remember, but I'm not positive on that. We can check in at the Guardian's office, confirm about potentially having them watch the Gate to Genessia City, and maybe get a list of which sub-archways they have and where. From there, if they have incident reports, we see if there's any pattern or likely area that would form a good start to search.

Thoughts?

[Trunks paused and then chuckled, and shared a fond glance to Mai.]

We could actually get radios for this, and they'd probably be a lot more high-tech than what you and I are used to. Which is good, because while we don't want to be seen, we don't have to be as stealthy.

We should not only look at the patterns in terms of areas that have been hit, but also at the times that the incidents happened. If we figure out a time range when the thief is most likely to strike, then we can focus on neighbourhood surveillance around those times.

[She pauses, trying to consider all options.]

There are a lot of different powers and abilities here. If the thief has been this hard to catch, we should consider the possibility that they can do something like instant transmission, or that they can turn invisible.

[Which brings her to the next suggestion.]

I wonder how much infrared binoculars cost...

[Mai caught that glance, and in spite of herself, allowed a faint smile back before returning her attention to Bulla.]

My guess would be the price of having to explain Bulma what we're up to.

Considering anything she came up with would no doubt be better quality than whatever the shops here would overcharge us for.

Let me see what I can find from Torchwood too, or build. I'm not as good as Mom, but I grew up in and out of her lab ever since I can remember. Radios, and some way of sensing non-visible beings besides sensing their ki>....

[There's a blink.]

Actually, that's a good question. If we can sense their ki....

[Definitely Bulma's son, considering he's pacing now as he thinks out loud.]

So first priority, gather what intel we can on where was hit and look for patterns. Talk to people, try and see if a trap would work. If one of you can handle that, I can handle gear to help...

One pattern I especially want to look for is what the properties have in common. If the AC units were all stolen from the ground level, then our thief or thieves probably can't fly. I also want to know what kind of cover their surroundings had.

[Her arms are crossed as she's mulling it over. Some of that military training is coming into play now. Her posture relaxes after a moment and she smirks.]

Please let me be the trap. I'm the least intimidating of the three of us.

[Mai and Trunks were both older than her, and significantly taller. At her height, she looks like a pushover, and she's come to enjoy correcting people's assumptions.]

[Mai opened her mouth, ready to protest that.]

[Oh, not the part about Bulla offering to be bait.]

[The part about her being the least intimidating.]

[...then again, after a moment's consideration as to how that might go, she thought better and switched tactics. Looking back to Trunks.]

I'm...not so sure that's a good idea.

[Trunks caught her look, and something in her tone, with an encouraging nod.]

That's why we're planning and talking now. So we can bring up the pros and cons. We're not set on a trap yet, for example.

[More to Bulla, but she had also picked up well what they might need to look for about the cover and areas where the units had been stolen.]

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Bounty-Hunting Log; Repair-Man (Attleton) [CLOSED]

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