Alice
**Nue Mission Inventory: 1x Flashlight, 1x Phone**

It was sundown. The time was right, shadows extended beyond their ordinary reach, something that was assisted by the light of the sun setting down the horizon. It was the perfect time for Nue to go out and flex her abilities. She went out in costume for the night, dipping into the shadows as soon as she could. It was another Halloween to her, but for most people it was probably just an ordinary day coming to a close; so walking around in her full costume wasn't exactly the best idea. It wasn't difficult to make her way to this neighborhood, hopping from shadow to shadow, under the trees, across the bushes that intersect each other. By the time she had made it, the sun had mostly set and the dark was beginning to fade into the area. 

She stayed in that shadow for a couple minutes, looking at the houses before thinking a bit more. She really should have prepared more. Maybe bring some eggs or toilet paper. Not all that creative, but classic mischief to get up to. Oh well, that was another note for next time, next outing will be better. For now she began to move once more, hopping between connecting shadows as effortlessly as walking. Sure, the shadows made for a rather abstract path, but moving through them in this fashion just felt right, almost like it was a game in itself. She stopped a little ways down the street of the quiet area, waiting within the shadow of a particularly leafy tree that crossed over the walkway, looking around for anything and anyone that stuck out.
Robert
Halloween was a strange thing in a world where capes existed. People going out in costume was a regular occurrence and that meant having a whole day dedicated to just that didn't have the same appeal it once did. That being said some people still put effort into giving people the fright of their lives, whether or not it was actually Halloween be damned.

As Nue waited in the shadow of the large oak tree she could see across the entire street, the soft glow of skyscrapers in the distance. It was dark and cold so most people were either out or comfortable inside there own homes. There were a few people of note though. A few houses down a woman sat on the bench in the small garden in front of a house, a lit cigarette one hand her phone in the other. On the other side of the road a man stood on a step ladder, screwdriver in hand as he worked on a light fixture above the front door.
Alice
There were few people out now, of course, but despite that she noticed the two people outside, one relaxing on the bench and one working on something on a ladder. It would be funny if the guy fell over somehow, but, no, he's too occupied with something, and pain isn't really the reaction she was looking for, not really anyway. The person sitting idly would probably have a better reaction for less effort.

She shifted herself once more, moving from the oak tree, moving to the shadow of the curb. With that she was able to glide down in front of the house with the woman in front of it. From there, she slid into the shadow of another tree, then to the bush in front of it, into a plant from the garden in front of that one. This by itself was satisfying, every move opened up new ones like connecting a puzzle together piece by piece.

She made it to the shadow cast by the bench, moving up it to get to the part cast by the shadow of the woman's head. Suddenly it felt as if something clicked. Nue was now this lady's shadow. Ejecting herself from that shadow, she rose from the ground with her newly acquired disguise equipped. She looked exactly like the lady on the bench and within her hands had found an unlit, half burnt cigarette in her left, and what looked to be a smartphone in her right. The phone would not turn on of course, but despite that Nue pretended to be engrossed in it as she took a step forward. 

Acting as if she was the only one around she sat next to the lady on the bench. She pretended to not even realize the woman next to her existed for a moment, scrolling on a blank screen angled in such a way that the person next to her could only see the back of it before suddenly looking up. She slowly turned to her side towards the woman with an expression of confusion. An expression which gradually morphed into a big, mocking grin.
Robert
To say Nue moved through the shadows didn't do justice to the act. No it was closer to her being the shadows than anything else. It took almost no effort to manoeuvre herself into the shadow of the woman before stepping out and sitting down next to her. Immediately the woman dropped her cigarette and jumped up turning to look at the imposter sitting on her bench.

"*Who the fuck are you? What the-*"

Her eyes went wide as she saw the face of the person before her.

"*Wha- Me? I...*"

She quickly types something into her phone and raises it to her ear as she steps back.
Alice
Nue couldn't help but let her grin widen as the woman hopped up, with that wry smile clear as anything on her face. She stood up alongside her, flicking the unlit cigarette at her, letting it disappear as it hit the ground. She quietly chuckled as she pocketed the blank phone and stepped to the side to put herself between the woman and the door of the house.

*"That's right. You." *

Her voice was replicated right back at her, but it sounded hollow and mocking as if she was being insincere. 

*"I am your negativity personified. So I guess I should thank you for manifesting me into existence."*

She watched for a moment as the woman made a call. Though it was something to be concerned about, perhaps causing a big scene would make things more fun. If the police were to show up, there would be more confusion to be caused too. As if flipping a switch her expression dropped, the girl's copy looking at her in the eyes and holding out a hand.

*"But I need more. Please, will you give me your life...?"*

She withdrew her hand, clutching it to her chest as she screamed bloody murder, putting the force of her body into the exertion of that shout. 
*"HELP! HEEELP! PLEASE! HELP ME! THIS MONSTER STOLE MY FACE!" *
She continued screaming loud enough for the sound to echo down the street as she turned to make a dash towards the door of the house they had been in front of, banging on it a couple times before trying to open it in desperation.
Robert
The woman had a look of sheer terror on her face. Her body tensed as her eyes darted around, what they were searching for was a mystery. Then her eyes flicked down as Nue reached out her hand. Then the shouting and screaming started. Once Nue started the woman joined in, throwing her phone directly at her copies face before turning and running.

"*GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! SOMEONE HELP!*"

She ran into the street trying to run as quickly as she could. Safe to say she didn't want to stick around her new clone. That's for sure. Across the street the man who had been fixing his light had turned to look in the direction of the comotion clearly concerned about what was happening.
Alice
Just as Nue was about to turn, the phone made contact with her face. She flinched, cutting off one of her screams. She watched for a moment as the real woman began to run away. Her scream, her extreme reaction, her fear, it made her feel something. The cape began to start another scream, but paused before she could, breaking character. If she tried to scream again, she would ruin it by turning it into laughter. For the sake of salvaging her performance despite being a rather bad actor she tried to keep it inside, letting the laughs come out in breaths and allowing her lips to curl up into a smile to vent these emotions.

Nue had dug herself in this far. What harm would there be in going a little further? "It might be fun to squeeze out a bit more from this little incident." She thought. With a deep breath to reset her composure she bent down to pick up the phone. It was physical evidence she was who she looked like. However, the woman did call someone before running off. Maybe she could leverage this against her somehow. She brought the phone to her ear and walked forward a little to watch the woman run down the street. 

*"Hello? Are you there?"*

She asked, breathing heavily. The other woman wasn't even able to get a word in before fleeing, but there was a good chance she was calling the police. If that was the case, then now it was the other way around: Nue would be making a call to report that woman.
Andrew
`"This is NLPD, What seems to be the problem ma'am? I will remind you for emergencies you really should be calling the emergency number."` The annoyed tone of the officer on the other end really was telltale of the kind of night they were having at the station. 

"What the hell was that about?" The repairman stammered to himself, having just watched a woman run screaming down the road, only to find she was still on her porch. Not too long after, he started a march across the street with a curious and slightly stunned look painted on his face. The woman of course was still striding down the street in abject horror, frantically screaming and fussing about what could not be.

In her panic, screaming of her imposter's identity theft, she would have run past some alley, with a certain cape laying in wait in the shadows, for almost this exact kind of scenario, Someone's playing around again, making playthings of the common folk.
Joe
*The woman's screams had the exact effect that the desperate people of the night hope: a Cape answers. This one was especially ready to answer the calls of the common folk at night: the one and only Creepy-Crawly, New London's Bugman of the Slums.*

*Nue can hear a low buzz, growing in intensity as something flies overhead. At first, it might be mistakable for the whirring of a drone or a small helicopter, but then she gets a painful headache, one that grows even more intense as the noise grows louder and louder, until, finally, she hears a thud on top of the lightpost just across the street, the light blotting out as something large squats on top of it.* 

*If one were to look at the lamp post, they'd see a creature spawned from the nightmares of the author of the Book of Exodus: a giant locust-man... Thing, well above human height and covered in chitinous armor, compound eyes like black diamons set in its horrific visage, and an inhuman maw, gaping open and filled with sharp fangs and a long tongue. A massive set of wings buzz on its back, keeping up the intensity of the headache on Nue, while the repairman, who seemed set on confronting her, seemed to not be affected.*
Alice
"Sorry... I knocked the phone out of my own hand..."
Nue spoke breathily into the phone with a copied voice. Her voice was tense as she continued, 
"I don't know if this is an emergency, but another me just came out of me. It knocked me over and then ran down the street. It's screaming for help too. It- It told me to give it my life and... Now I can't remember anything."

The copy looked up from the phone to see the man that had been working on the lights earlier. She seemed more worried than panicked like a few moments ago.
"Hey! Please! Can you help me? I can't remember anything! I think it's because of that other me!"
 She called out to the man, obviously distressed when she noticed that her head started to hurt a bit. She brought the phone back up to her ear, speaking into it. "My head hurts. It... Really hurts..." That aching became more intense paired with that strange buzzing getting louder. She then looked up at the lamp post as the light went out, now in the shadow of what looked to be a horrific bug monster.

"It's a giant bug!" She pointed at the lamp post for the repairman next to her to follow. Though she regretted that movement, even small things like that made her head feel worse with that pounding headache demanding her attention. She brought her free hand back to her head. It was almost impossible to focus like this, even maintaining her disguise which was normally something Nue could do without so much as a thought felt as if she had to maintain focus to do so now. Nue had glanced over at the repairman, seeing how he was completely unaffected by that headache and how the bug stared at her led her to one singular conclusion. That bug man was causing this headache and she was being targeted. 
"That thing, it's after me! It wants me dead! Someone please help!" She screamed in that woman's voice, though now sounding strained and raspy from that intense headache. She backed slowly up as if trying to move away from both the repairman and the bug monster.
Andrew
`"Ma'am? Ma'am calm down, I can't help you with all the screaming, stay calm! Where are you, what's the address?"` the officer on the other end of the phone call seemed annoyed, and genuinely concerned now.

The repairman however had just reached the bench in the garden when Nue, still wearing the dressings of a distressed smoker, turned his attention towards the hulking monster sitting atop the light post. "WHAT THE FUCKIN' HELL IS THAT THING" Were the exact exasperated words that left his mouth as he reached for the hammer on his toolbelt. 

The old repairman was getting goosebumps, and piercing headaches just looking at Creepy-Crawly, more in Opposition to the rogue now than not, and paying the price for it in pain. Disoriented and losing focus, the repairman about doubled over, and dropped the hammer in desperation, this time looking through his pouch for something. "JESUS F-FUCKIN' CHRIST, THAT'S BUGS BLOODY MASSIVE, GET INSIDE LADY."
Joe
*The bug-man seems to wind up for a moment before taking off like a rocket into the air, landing with an audible thud on his chitinous legs in front of the repairman and the now-distressed bodysnatcher. Rising from a crouching position, Creepy-Crawly is even worse up close, and an arm raises up, a clawed hand reaching out to pick up the hammer...*

*...Before picking it up by the head, offering it back to the repairman handle first.* 

"Relax: you're in no danger." *He says, even if the man's first instinct is to wail on him or worse, his chitin more than likely capable of withstanding the blows.*

"A woman ran crying towards my alleyway, screaming about how she was being impersonated by a Cape of some kind." *The bug-man says in a low, gruff voice, the hint of an accent beneath his words.* "Wouldn't it make sense that, whoever the person who did that was, they wouldn't be the one screaming and running away? Or would they be the one standing, right where the woman was?" *The bug-man asks, crossing his arms and tapping a chitinous foot on the ground, oddly chiding the repairman while seemingly ignoring Nue.*

*The more Nue sees of Creepy-Crawly, however, the less she's able to keep her focus on him. Any little distraction, no matter how minor, seems to impose itself upon her senses, and she often finds herself struggling to even look in the bug-man's general direction.*
Alice
Nue tried to look at the bug but more than glimpses of it hurt her head and the blurry sight of it was difficult to focus on. She definitely heard him come down and as she approached she screamed once more. From what she could infer that giant bug did make contact with the man."It's thrown something in my eye! It's hard to see!" Her voice sounded just as desperate and with that headache imparted on her she hardly had to do any acting. It was easier for her to focus on the phone and the words coming from it rather than the monster close to her. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision and the tears in her eyes, looking at the number of one of the houses. 

"I'm at 1267 Loggins Road! Please send someone! It's attacking a man! I think it's going to go after me next!" She averted her eyes, using her free hand to partially block her vision with the giant bug. It felt as if that helped with that horrible headache the bug seemed to be projecting at her. She didn't even bother to address the bug's claims, instead keeping up the hysterics. She moved a little further away again, towards the house she had been standing in front of, turning her back on the other cape in what was more like a short dash than a sprint, mostly to make sure she had been keeping track of everything. The phone, her appearance, and that burning headache. She paused, pressing her hand against her head again, letting herself recover for that moment.
Andrew
"GOD DAMMMED TALKING BUG, I'LL SHOW YOU, GET A LOAD OF THIS"

The man made furious, unceremonious, and frankly awful swings at Creepy-crawly with the returned hammer. Perhaps he struck a few times, with his old man strength maybe it would have hurt even, but that wasn't really what he had in-store. He struggled to retrieve it from his bag but he did manage to pull it, almost fumbling it with his shaky hands and panicked demeanor.

With their positions, Nue didn't have a good view of the item. The officer on the other end of the line continued to talk. `" Calm down ma'am, stay on the line, tell me as much as you can about what it is, and find safety, I have a unit on the way now."` The voice could be heard by Crawly now as well, with how close he'd come, and though she was playing dumb, her lies only cemented to Crawly that she was some kind of nefarious trickster.

The man now with a solid grip now on his item, shot it up into Creepy-crawly's face, a can of cheap wasp spray. He pulled the trigger on the thing without hesitation, screaming obscenities as he failed the can about in his assumed assailant's direction, the thought only bolstered by Nue's charade.
Joe
*Kurt would roll his eyes if he could at the feeble attempts at hitting through his chitin, but the chitinous eyes focus intently on the cheap can of wasp spray.*

*'...Blyat.'*

*The wasp spray sears away at the chitin, melting his Breaker form like acid on wax paper. He screams a horrific, blood-curdling scream, hands going up to grasp at his face from the pain. He leaps up into the air, stray sprays of the toxic insecticide catching at other bits of his Breaker form as he attempts a retreat. He lands in a bush, and immediately shifts out of his Breaker form, looking down at his hands, which look as if they've just gone through an intensive chemical peel, and blisters bubble up on the surface of his skin.* 

*He stumbles out of the bush, his face a similar story: red and inflamed in the places where the man sprayed him, with blisters already forming. He looks pissed off, but not murderously so. He pulls up his coat over his mouth, better to mask his identity and also to hide the stinging burns on his face.* 

"**WILL YOU KNOCK THAT THE FUCK OFF!?**" *He bellows at the repairman, marching up from the bush and yelling into the phone as best he can from the distance he's at.* "Officer! The woman on this line is the imposter! The real one ran away screaming! The bug-man was a Cape trying to get a handle on the situation, but he's ran off! Believe me if you want, I don't give a shit! Just know I won't be here to deal with whatever bullshit she's got planned!" *He turns to face the repairman, glowering at him, before pointing at the can still in his hand.*

"That's not a great brand for killing wasps, by the way. Works too slowly." *He says, before jumping back into the bush, changing back into his Breaker form, and taking flight, up to the relative safety of a rooftop a block or two away.*
Alice
Nue couldn't really watch the scene with that headache inducing aura the cape had, but as she remained turned away she leaned forward a little and put her hand over her mouth as she heard that bug man scream. From a distance it could look like she was gagging from the experience, but in actuality she was covering her face to hide her big grin and silent chuckling.

She caught herself and felt that buzzing in her head and headache fade a bit. Looking up just in time to see a strange blistered man from a bush. It didn't look like the man had a costume. Was this cape someone that just went out without one? Though she noticed right then that the man didn't stop there, he was approaching her. Her eyes widened in surprise, he was exposed and though he was using his coat to hide his face somewhat, much of him was exposed! Nue acted fast to pull up the phone's camera and point it at the man that was a bug just moments ago. She continued speaking into the phone, moving to get behind the repairman again and further away from the cape.

.

"It changed into a man! It's a cape that can turn into a bug that gives headaches!" She shouted towards the phone to shout over the man. She was still frantic as ever but now the camera of the phone began to flash in intervals as she took his picture as many times as she could. "The man with me sprayed him with something! I think it was bug spray! Bug spray works against him! He's not in a costume! I'm taking pictures of him now!" She shouted both to drown out the bug man's voice as well as to announce to him exactly what she was doing.

She continued snapping pictures even while he dove into the bush once again. Though her line of sight was broken the more the better she figured. Just a moment after that headache came back and forced her to avert her eyes, but even so she took a couple more pictures, hoping to capture him in the middle of taking flight before bringing the phone close to her again, clutching it tightly. "I... I think it's going away." She sounded a bit more calm, but shaken up, especially from the man's approach. "They're running, but I think they'll be back."
Joe
*They very much will not be back.*

*Kurt is racing along rooftops, jumping in and out of shadow, turning back and forth from Breaker form to human form as he races back to his apartment.*

*'There's pictures. Of me. Not in bug mode. Fuck fuck fuck fuck—'*

*It doesn't matter that Kurt's face is disfigured and he was wearing some form of face covering: his identity was compromised. It was time for Plan B: Bug Out.*

*He arrives back at his apartment, practically ripping the door off its hinges as he rushes inside, gathering his survivalist gear specifically for this occasion (it wasn't the first time that Kurt had felt like he'd needed to go away for a while, after all), and rushing out, barely having time to lock his door on the way out before he's back in the street, jumping from shadow to shadow as he makes his way across the city, from the slums to the very outskirts of town.*

*Civilization fades away, as does the light of New London. Kurt curses the city, curses two Earths for the pain he feels, curses the invention of wasp spray, curses the trickster who caught his face.* 

*Curses himself. Curses hubris, thinking he could be a 'better' Cape.*

*'Creepy-Crawly was a stupid fucking name,' thinks Kurt Yazovitch, as he limps into the woods, setting up a tent in the most secluded hollow he can find. He sits down, panting, taking a roll of bandages from his bag and wrapping it over his blistered hands. There was patches of the chemical burn on his side, chest, and face, and those took their time getting bandaged and covered in some kind of medical gel.*
Andrew
And so. He left. Creepy-crawly, a cape that so desperately clung to his anonymity to enact his ideals of capehood. It small at first, but a measure like this could have ruined everything if she had gotten a good enough shot, and worked to expose him. He didn't stick around to find out, who knows just where he'd chosen to go e, surely not anyone still at the scene.

Speaking of, An MPC unit arrived a few minutes after his departure, the repairman had set himself down and was taking in the situation, still reeling from the pain and confusion, in that time he couldn't process much, and didn't seem to bother Nue either. MPC officers pulled out from the vehicle, securing the street and searching for the parahuman fitting the description they received, and one approached Nue and the repairman.

"Excuse me, would either of you happened to have seen a 'bug-man'. We received a call that a Parahuman with Bug abilities was present on the street." Still too out of it to do anything, the repairman looked at them with a sigh of relief falling from his lips. "Thank GOODNESS, you're here officers" He made a point of hollering.

More officers piled out of the vehicle as they spoke, some pushing down the far end of the streets with their rifles. With any luck, they might find the real woman Nue was impersonating soon.
Alice
After a few moments Nue realized that the headache began to let up. It wouldn't get any worse no matter where she looked. It was a relief, she let out a sigh though kept glancing up towards the sky every now and again just in case. She hung up the call and took the moment to look through the phone she got from the woman, looking through contacts and messages for a name she could use when after a couple minutes she heard the units arrive down the street.

As the MPC officer approached and questioned the two of them she nodded. She still seemed rather out of it much like the repairman, but despite that was in much better condition than him. "Yes, the bug man attacked us." She pointed over at the street light that the cape had been on, "It perched up there at first. My sister ran off, I think she must have noticed it before we did. Then it came down and attacked him" She pointed to the repairman, "But he sprayed him with something." She paused and added "It gave us headaches, the bug man might have been messing with our heads. Have you seen my sister? Is she okay? It didn't go after her, did it?" Her voice grew more concerned and hectic with each question.
Andrew
The officers behind him were moving to have a similar conversation with the repair man, isolated from Nue, likely to get his own account of things without interrupting or interruption. Maybe they were doing it as a protocol against what Creepy-crawly had managed to shout over the phone. Either way, Nue and the Repairman, were not being interviewed separately.

The MPC officer confronting Nue had a notepad and a pen ready, writing down her account as she let it out in exasperated, panicked words. "Sister? We did receive reports of a woman running mad down the street, we'll see to it that she's safe, you've my word miss...?" 

He let the words linger, looking to her for prompt. He was asking for her name

A name. She'd seen something thumbing through the phone with it's cheap keypad. Caroline Fairway. A pretty frequently called number in this lady's phone it seemed. Potentially a family member, maybe not a sister, not like Nue would be able to tell, but it would work for now.
Alice
Nue took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. Caroline Fairway, that's fine she'll be this person for the time being. "Fairway, Carol Fairway. Thank you..." She sounded nervous, but moderately reassured by the cop's words. That relief only really lasted for a moment. She looked up to the sky nervously in the direction that the bug man had flown away. "He flew that way, he's not still there is he? You'll catch him, right?"
Andrew
"We're working through our protocols right now Ma'am, part of that is interviews like this. Now, Miss Fairway-" He wasn't budging it seemed. "You said you experienced head-aches, was there anything else? Any injuries, amnesia, a loss of control of some kind?"

Before he could get any further with his questioning, one of the officers questioning the repairman who looked quite stressed and concerned hurried to his side, gently pulling him to turn around. "Sergeant, I need you to hear this." His back was turned way now, huddled with the new officer, whispering something to each other she couldn't quite hear.

If she was going to get away, right now might be a good idea.
Alice
Protocols, if that was how it was going to be she might be here for a little while. She opened her mouth, about to answer the police's question when the other officer pulled the cop to the side. The details did change around a little since the prank started, it was starting to get a little messy. It wouldn't be all too great if she was pressed any more than she had been, especially if the accounts were going to be mixed together. To say nothing of the mess that would become when they found the other girl.

It was a good time to bail and with the authorities with their backs to her it was just about the perfect time to make her exit. She took a couple of steps to her left to stand in the shadow of the tree, turned to the repairman for just a moment to mime a hat tip to him and disappear into the ground.

Nue moved as a shadow through the tree's own, hopping to the next adjacent one to travel down the street. Though it would be a shame to just miss out on the rest of this little scene. Now that she has disappeared things can only get more out of hand. Some distance should do for that. She moved, shadow to shadow down the street, pausing to take in the scene every so often.
Andrew
She was far gone by the time the MPC were on high alert again, the distant shout from the Sergeant rang out "STRANGER!" But, it was too late, Nue was already far beyond their reach, with a reward in hand. Black mail material? Perhaps. Maybe she'd just hold onto it just to fuck with this 'Creepy-Crawly'. 

RECIEVED:
Nue - Photo of Creepy crawly ( face partially covered, rest of face disfigured, Hair and hair color clear, Clothes clear, build clear, skin color clear, eyes unclear), Cheap phone
Creepy-Crawly & Nue - Investigation started.