Handle with Care (S1:E5)

Late Spring, 2020   State Route 6, Freedom City     Three full-size tanker trucks careen down the highway, their silver tanks reflecting the flashing red-and-blue lights of the police cruisers in pursuit. As a cruiser draws close to the cab of one truck, a pistol-wielding arm reaches out the window and fires wildly. The cruiser’s front tire explodes, and as it veers off to the shoulder, a billowing cloud of white fog blasts out from the tanker, covering the police vehicle in a thick layer of frost while a goon clinging to the tank itself laughs maniacally. The other cruisers hang back as the distance to the speeding tanker trucks swiftly closes.  

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The Dark Archer, Kid Shadow and the Blue Comet fought against several members of the local Nine Titans, a street gang who have stolen a trio of tanker trucks filled with liquid nitrogen and were careening down State Route 6 to make their getaway.   In the attempt to stop the hijacking, two trucks crashed onto the side of the interstate, killing six gang members. One Nine Titan was killed when Dark Archer shot him while on top of the speeding truck. He fell and struck the ground, killing him instantly.   One truck was saved when Kid Shadow got behind the wheel after knocking out the driver and managed to stop the vehicle. Fortunately, the Blue Comet was able to help stop the truck as well. A Nine Titan tried to escape but the Blue Comet quickly apprehended him.   When the police arrived, they arrested two of the gang members. Dark Archer and Kid Shadow left the scene before the police arrived. Blue Comet stayed.   Blue Comet asked if he could go to the police station to offer any assistance in putting a stop to a wave of crimes sweeping the city in the past two weeks.   At the police station the Blue Comet discovered, after the police arrested the Nine Titans' leader, Malcolm Getty, AKA Cronus, that a new crime organization had taken a foothold in Freedom City.   According to Cronus, "There’s a new mob in town, part of a big ring called the Black Rose something, taking orders from a freak by the name o’ ‘Oleander.’ They’re takin’ over the city’s underworld, one gang at a time. Now, me and the Titans, we’re happy enough to work with ‘em, but others aren’t so much. Ash Cats, for one, they’ve been makin’ all kinds of noise and puttin’ up a fight. Bad call, if you ask me. I wouldn’t want to get on the Black Rose’s bad side—thought they were normal enough, but last few weeks, seems they’ve got a bit of, you know, super something on their side."   Detective Richard Rolland told Blue Comet that the Nine Titans didn’t know why the Black Rose charged them to steal a massive quantity of liquid nitrogen. The dropoff points for the stolen vehicles were seemingly random areas. Apparently, members of the Black Rose would take the stolen trucks after they were dropped off.   The Blue Comet also learned about a series of thefts of seemingly random and unrelated items over the past few weeks, including the following:   A theft similar to what the Nine Titans attempted, in which operatives successfully made off with several tanker trucks of liquid oxygen,   A report from a ceramics manufacturer in the suburbs indicating a large number of kilns stolen from a warehouse,   A missing train transporting a wholesale shipment of microwave ovens imported from China,   An elaborate heist in which a series of Victorian-era statues were stolen from city hall. City officials claimed the statues’ removal was part of a larger redecoration,   A subway station offline for weeks after much of its electrical cabling disappeared,   and a local grocery distribution center’s entire stock of canned and smoked fish products has disappeared from the company warehouse.   Although Detective Rolland feels that the thefts were somehow related, he couldn't pinpoint why or what the connections may be.   The Blue Comet offered to help the police continue their investigation. He then left after Detective Rolland gave him a business card.