From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Last Night is another story centering around my main hero High Jinks. It is a short arc involving Jinks' first run-in with the Sinseeker. Hilarity ensues. Thanks for reading in advance!

The Joke Is On You

Today
The Comedy Cave
Also known as Jonah Patrick's apartment.

His alarm clock rang six decibels too loud as he fumbled around for the snooze button. He failed, accidentally knocking the clock off his nightstand. Even after it's defeat, it refused to quiet down. He squeezed his pillow around his head to block out the sound. Not happening. He knew there was no going back to sleep after this. Joe sighed and swung his legs over the side of the bed and rested his head in his hands. His back ached, he'd gained a black eye, and he was fairly sure the bruise on his shoulder wouldn't be going away anytime soon. The still-beeping alarm clock wasn't helping his headache either. He stood as slowly as possible and staggered over to his wardrobe. Joe pulled a t-shirt over his head and threw on his robe. He pulled apart his curtains as bright morning light poured in through the window, causing him to squint. What passed for morning light anyways. Smog rolled over King's Row skyline, blocking out a portion of the sun from Joe's apartment window.

Joe shuffled out of his room to his refrigerator, grabbed a bottled water and an ice pack, and plopped down on his couch. He held the ice pack over his eye when his apartment door opened.

"Thanks alot, ass. You forgot to pick me up from school again."

Jonah sighed. "I love you too, Miranda. Wait, school?"

She tossed her purse onto the counter as she hovered over Joe on the couch.

"Yeah. It's 3 o' clock. Yeesh, what happened to you?"

"Ugh." Jonah moaned. Miranda looked around.

"Is that your alarm clock ringing?"

Joe took a swig of water and sighed. "Yeah. Could you get that for me, Mir?"

Miranda left to shut off his clock and hollered from his room.

"You weren't in when I left this morning, what happened last night?"

Last Night
King's Row

"Stand still and die!"

Naturally, he disobeyed. High Jinks vaulted up and over a crate, onto a dumpster as his would be assailant squeezed off shot after shot in his direction. Apparently, you didn't need target practice to become a crook. Jinks somersaulted into the adjacent wall, kicking off it, spiraling towards the thug like an airborne missile. He plowed through him like a bowling pin as they both tumbled. His companions surrounded Jinks as he picked himself up.

He'd stumbled across this merry band of thieves carting off priceless works of art out of an old art museum about a half hour ago. He'd been watching on a fire escape as the carried paintings and sculptures and loaded them into a van. Jinks listened in on one of them speaking to a woman over an out-of-date cellphone. They'd been waiting for their buyer to show up for the deal for over an hour now. Jinks got tired of waiting. The three goons brandished crowbars as they circled Jinks like hyenas stalking their prey.

"Now boys, this isn't exactly a fair fight, is it?"

Two charged at him. Reflexively, he hopped once and sprung into the air kicking them square in the chests as he flipped up and onto the third's shoulders. Jinks grabbed his jacket and threw himself backwards, causing them to topple over. The two thugs had recovered by then. One caught Jinks from behind and swung the metal bar into his shoulder hard. Jinks grunted in pain, ducking and rolling away as he pulled a smoke bomb from his belt. He smashed it at his feet, a heavy cloud of black smoke billowing outward and clouding their vision. The lenses in his masked helped Jinks see through the murky fog as he decked one thug from behind. Jinks looked around for the other until he heard the familiar click of a gun being cocked behind him. Jinks turned in time to witness a figure swing from the fire escape, tackling the thug. He bounced off the brick wall of the museum humorously and crumpled on the ground. The woman let go of the cable she'd swung from, her lithe body twisting in midair.

Jinks turned to his savior, a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties from the look of her. She was clad in grey tights, a black keyhole top and matching black combat boots. Obviously dressed for stealth, a vast difference from Jinks' bright red outfit. He couldn't see her eyes from behind her silver goggles, but Jinks was fairly sure her brow was arched as she surveyed him from head to toe.

"You're welcome." she said smirking, as she raised her arms above her head to stretch.

"Oh, uh... yeah. Thanks. But I totally had it under control."

She laughed quietly and moved over to the thug she'd tackled. "Oh, I'm sure."

Jinks dragged two of the unconscious thieves over while the mystery woman pulled the other two on top of them. He tilted his head as he looked at the woman.

"Who're you anyways?"

She looked up at him as she pulled a set of handcuffs from her belt and fastened them around the wrists of the thugs. "Does it matter, Chuckles?"

Jinks shrugged. "Not really. I like to stay in the know."

It's more fun if you don't know." she laughed. "You going to close up?"

Jinks looked behind him at the museum, "Yeah, I've just got-" He was interrupted as the young woman sucker-punched him, then followed it up with a kick to the stomach. She was stronger than she looked. He fell to his knees and gasped for air. He caught his breath in time to see the van full of stolen art pulling away. Jinks sat up on his knees when it dawned on him. The buyer. She'd probably gotten here shortly after he did. Waited for him to take care of the thieves so she wouldn't have to. Made off with the goods.

Jinks laughed as he stood.

"Hahahahahehehah! That's pretty funny."