A call to action!

“This is Aerialist” said Gem, quickly answering the call.

“Aerialist, are you free to speak?” The voice on the other end of the call was a woman’s. Her voice was level, almost completely devoid of emotion as she spoke but Darwin recognised it anyway. It was Margaret Walters, one of the inspectors in charge of overseeing the control room who Darwin had never met in person but had heard that she was not someone you wanted to get on the wrong side of. Still, Gemma was in a bad mood and couldn’t help herself but make it known.

“Yes Ma’am, just me and a few snowmen for company out here.”

“We’re pulling you off patrol duty, we have a new lead in the disappearance of Matthew White and you’re our closest asset, we need you to investigate immediately” came the reply from Walters and Gem realised it was probably a good thing that her comment had been ignored.

Matthew White though, he was a millionaire, almost a billionaire who had gone missing almost a week ago without a trace. Gem had been interested in the case initially but when she had been told it was being assigned to a higher level hero she had stopped following it, feeling jealous that she had not even been considered for the job. She did know it had been assigned to Brawler Girl however and she had then also gone A.W.O.L a few days ago. It must have been a pretty important development if they were now sending a street level hero to investigate something that had originally been considered too important for her.

“What’s happened? Did we get word from Brawler Girl?” Darwin asked

“Negative, we’ve still not heard back from her.” Came the voice of Walters. “We’ve been doing check of the last position of White’s phone. Although it was switched off about an hour before White was last seen on CCTV it was pinging in an area of Notting Hill known for various night clubs and brothels. Mr White was well known for visiting such establishments and we have located one he had visited before, not to far from where the phone was last active.”

Gem’s heart sank slightly.

“You want me to visit a strip club?” she said dryly.

“We want you to search for a missing person” replied Walters, just as dryly.

Gem paused, trying her best not to make any of the snide comments which had flooded her mind.

“We’ll I guess I am dressed for it.” She failed.

There was another pause, this time from Walters end.

“This matter is time sensitive Aerialist, the club you are looking for is called The Velvet Rose. You are there to scout out the area and look for any clues of the disappearance of Mr White. Blueprints show a large skylight in the roof of the building. Get up there and see what you can see. You are not to enter the building unless absolutely necessary. Is that clear?” There was ice in Walters’ voice now and Gem knew not to push her luck.

“All received Ma’am.” Was all she said.

“Good, For king and country, we are who we are.” Finished Walters.

“For king and country” replied Gem, returning the G.O.O.N affirmation but ignoring the religious response, instead just rolling her eyes.

As the line went dead on the radio Gem thought about her mission for a moment. Investigating a strip club to find a missing millionaire who was only being searched for because his children had to look like they cared to avoid suspicions when it came time for them to collect their inheritance. Still it beat standing around in the cold all night.

Gem took a deep breath then sprinted towards the east side of the building she was on and launched herself from the roof. Her initial leap could have likely carried her around a hundred feet if not further and as she flew through the air she shifted her weight slightly, entering a lazy corkscrew as she torpedoed forward. The rush of air on her face was exhilarating and she completely forgot about the cold as she flew forward, finishing her corkscrew in time to enter a front flip before slowing her momentum and allowing herself a graceful landing on the roof of a block of flats before breaking back into her sprint and charging towards the edge of this building as well. As Gem leapt off this roof she did so at an angle, aiming herself towards a much taller building down the street. With a subtle shift in her own gravity she hit this building boots first and ran effortlessly along the wall, covering the entire length of the building before launching herself off again.

Between running and leaping from building to building Gem easily managed to traverse the distance to Notting Hill much faster than she could have ever done in a vehicle, London traffic being what it was and she was enjoying herself so much she didn’t even realise she had entered the district and then crossed the entire length of it until she landed on the roof of the Ruby hotel. Here she reluctantly stopped and looked around to get her bearings. While she wasn’t familiar with the more upper class areas of the city she knew roughly where she was looking for and had just worked out the direction when she heard a sound below her.

“Get away from me!” Came a woman’s voice, sounding hysterical.

Gem looked down to see a woman entering as dead end alley, being pursued by three men. The woman was dressed in business attire, looking slightly disheveled, maybe she had been working late and these men had seen her as a likely target. The dead end that the woman had entered was directly below Gem and the men behind her were taking their time following their target, clearly knowing the area better than the distressed woman.

“Time for some actual hero work.” Gem said to herself.

With a small smirk she stood with her back to the edge of the building and allowed herself to tilt backwards until natural gravity took hold and she plunged off the edge. Once airborne Gem bent backwards and flipped head over heels before slowing her descent to allow herself to land dramatically between the woman and the men in a three point stance, looking up at the attackers with a cold grin.