Eous overlooked Sixth Street from atop the apartment complex beside General Chop's Noodle Shop in his Bangboo uniform.

"You detected an EMP back there right, Fairy?"

"Affirmative. It seems you are relatively immune to disruption signals such as those with your new powers."

Eous whistled and peered down the building with a glare. "Clean. Should make this a lot easier."

Eous spotted Wise and Qingyi reaching under the convenience store's truck for one of the ducks he spotted, and saw annoyance all over Wise's face.

"Could really use Eous' super strength right now..." He muttered, hearing the faint quacks of the little ducks.

"His what?" Qingyi suddenly stopped reaching in confusion.

"A-Ah, that was a hyperbole. He's just way more fit than I am for this." Wise scrambled to explain.

"Oh. Why didn't I think of that."

Qingyi suddenly lifted the truck with sparks of electricity crackling along her arms. The duck began quacking in a panic seeing its cover moved so easily.

Wise swiftly grabbed the duck amidst his own shock.

"Seriously...?"

"Sorry. Slipped my mind." Qingyi replied with a smirk.

Eous hopped over to the next building above God Finger and peered down at the crime scene, where only Gael remained. He was still on his phone, seemingly trying to explain the situation to his client.

"Incoming call from: Belle."

"Bro-bro, we finally understand what's going on with all the appliances in the neighborhood."

"EMP?"

"Fairy?"

"Yup."

"Damnit..." Belle cursed.

"A win for me." Fairy muttered.

"Can you two cut it out?" Wise whispered. "You geared up, Eous? We can't allow this person to terrorize our neighborhood."

"Eagle eye right now. Don't look up. Talk later."

Belle and Wise were arriving at Gael's van alongside Qingyi, Zhu Yuan and Give Change.

The two struggled not to draw attention to him after finding out he was above them somewhere. Curiosity killed the cat, and if the two officers saw him it would complicate things.

"Partner, there is a current suspect according to PubSec radio. He is heading to Belle and Wise's location in attempt to flee law enforcement." Fairy announced.

"Let's wrap this gift up nicely." Eous smirked and leapt away seeing Zhu Yuan and Qingyi suddenly break into a sprint.

•

A man in a red bandana hit a corner roughly, shoving aside a business man on the phone. Ignoring the man's backlash in favor of not being caught by Zhu Yuan's impressive stride, he kept running.

"Stop there!" Zhu Yuan ordered, knocking away the boxes the suspect flung back at the two.

Qingyi hopped over the ones rolling towards her leg and kept stride alongside her partner.

The suspect grew desperate and grabbed a nearby cat resting on a mailbox and chucked it backwards.

Zhu Yuan yelped, her instincts forcing her to dodge.

Eous appeared behind her, catching the cat in his arms as Qingyi's eyes widened at his sudden arrival. Unable to focus on the vigilante, the two booked it around the corner to continue their pursuit.

Eous set down the cat with a chuckle and disappeared in a blur.

As the two officers rounded the corner, Qingyi suddenly felt a jolt throughout her body. An EMP erupted from the suspect's bag, additionally causing a forklift to drop the pipes it was holding.

Zhu Yuan grit her teeth and side stepped to the wall with Qingyi since it covered the majority of the street they were on.

Rushing by them, Eous flew over the pipes with a laugh. He kicked up ball of crystal and went to kick it at the back of the man's head, but was suddenly shot in his back.

With a solid hit, but not with nearly enough power, the man groaned as he stumbled into the alley and rushed into the Companion Hollow entrance.

Eous fell flat on his face and skid to a stop with a much louder groan from the sudden ambush.

Qingyi looked over and saw that Zhu Yuan had instinctively fired seeing the vigilante.

"Damn, Zhu Yuan. I wasn't expecting you to be so ruthless when we still don't have a warrant."

"O-Oh no... I didn't know what it was! I-I... he shouldn't have got in the way!" She whined in disbelief.

Eous stood up just as Belle and Wise finally caught up to the three. Waving away the smoke trailing from his back, he turned to the others with a glare.

"You shot me." He muttered.

"Y-You shouldn't have interfered with Publif Security affairs!" Zhu Yuan argued.

"I'd have knocked him out for you if you didn't interfere with my kick!" Eous shouted back.

"Ugh! You are really making me regret not fighting for your warrant, vigilante!" Zhu Yuan stomped over and slipped by him to look at the Hollow entrance in annoyance.

"Let's go, Senior." Zhu Yuan stormed into the Hollow.

Qingyi eyed Nova up and down, trying to get a read on his identity. She wasn't ignorant to Eous disappearing just before they found the ducks and resolved the situation, but Wise said that it was him who found the locations of the ducks on his way back to the store.

Qingyi jogged into the Hollow with an annoyed hum.

Belle and Wise paced beside Eous with a nervous air. "You going in after them? This is already pretty risky with that timing and all." Wise asked.

"That's what the first picture was for. See you when we sync." Eous rushed inside the Hollow too.

Belle looked at the first picture and saw it was his clawed hand holding some of the inventory at an edited time of around the next five minutes.

•

"What are you doing here? Are you looking to be arrested?" Zhu Yuan was growing tired with the Bangboo vigilante.

"I've got friends in Sixth Street- and I'm not too fond of this guy ruining their livelihood. So this is my problem too." Fairy made sure to keep the static his mask provided to his voice as he spoke.

"This is out of your jurisdiction- a-as is everything, but especially now that we are on the case." Zhu Yuan didn't want to spare time explaining the law to him, so she began walking forward aimlessly in frustration.

"And how do you expect to find this guy?" Eous reasoned.

Qingyi crossed her arms. "Heat signature-"

"Ether's pretty hot, little miss." Eous held up an orb of Ether, and sure enough it gave off a signature.

"I'm sure you've heard, but I'm known to make miracles happen. Maybe your wish just came true." He flaunted himself with arms lazily outstretched.

Zhu Yuan clicked her tongue and turned to Qingyi for approval.

She rolled her eyes and waved Eous toward them.

"Our odds are far better with him than against him. He is, the Nova after all. Come along, vigilante." Qingyi replied.

"Don't worry, Officers, I'll be out of your way." He strut past them with a smug smile on his mask.

•

Zhu Yuan's day was flipped on its head. She was happy to run into Eous, and his siblings of course, and hang out with him after how little progress the PubSec Seminar was gaining.

It was nice to see him in his element, but if it wasn't for this bandit with the EMP, she would still be with him.

She groaned after watching the last Farbatui collapse with its shattered core bursting into pixels.

She and Qingyi looked up at Eous, who sat on an overpass above the abandoned train station of Fourteenth Street's Companion Hollow.

"For someone who took out the Dead End Butcher, you don't like making yourself useful..." Zhu Yuan complained.

"That's not nice. I'm so busy tracking our little suspect and here you are complaining? Didn't realize PubSec was so ungrateful." Eous teased, hopping down and shaking his head.

"Besides. I'm far out of your way. You clearly don't wanna be associated." Eous waved them off and began walking away in the direction of EMPs along the Hollow.

•

Qingyi and Zhu Yuan felt around a sturdy door mechanism that shut from another wave of EMP the suspect released upon seeing them catch up.

"Don't just stand there-" Zhu Yuan turned to Nova and saw him smirking with his hands on his hips. "Is there another way around, Proxy?"

"This is far quicker."

Coating the wall in luminescent crystal, he dug his claws into the door before tearing it off completely with a metal shriek.

The three then heard a faint "HUH?!" at how quickly they had resolved the issue.

"Let's move!" Qingyi was first to dash forward after the suspect.

•

"Quit using the EMP! it's attracting Ethereals!" Zhu Yuan shouted through the train station.

The three were hot on the suspects trail thanks to Eous' quick solution to their electrical problems, only several meters behind the man as they ran down the tracks.

"Ha! As if I care?!" the suspect snarked, looking back ahead of him to see a Tyrfing Ethereal. "One measly Ethereal is no match for me!"

His exclamation was cut short when a horde of them and other variants began to crawl out from the station and onto the tracks as if replying to his taunt.

"Uh... Why are there so many of them-" The Ethereals wasted no time and lunged for the source of their discomfort and annoyance.

"Ah! H-Help! HELP ME!" The suspect was quick to back track the other way, crashing straight into a clothesline from Eous.

He hit the ground in a daze as Eous turned to the officers.

"I'll leave them to you again. Don't worry. He and I will sit real~ tight."

Zhu Yuan and Qingyi huffed as they dashed past him to take on the horde of Ethereals on their own.

Eous turned to the suspect with a malicious leer, a complete 180 from the smirk he gave the two women. Looking up at the vigilante, who only spared him a single eye peering into his soul made the man yelp and crawl away.

Eous jerked his tail around and snatched the man by his feet, holding up over the ground before snatching the bag from under him with his other tail.

"No more of this, bud. You've had your fun." Eous squeezed, applying pressure to the man's ankles and making him wince.

"Y-You're Nova! But you're a proxy?! Why are you working with PubSec you frau- AGH!" He was dropped on his head before he could insult him.

"I'm a Proxy. Not a super villain. You inconvenienced far too many people, and could've hurt far more. Can't let that slide, pal. Not for a second." Eous lifted him up by the collar and simply held him out as he waited for the officers to finish the Ethereals.

"Y-You... you damn bastard! You're a criminal just like us! Who do you think you are?!" The man swung a wild haymaker at Eous' face.

His fist lingered until seeing the single eye look over from this fist to him. Seeing the direct attack have no effect made the man cower in his grasp realizing he only pissed him off even more.

"I am a criminal, so remember I've got no law stopping me from curb stomping you." Eous held him up much higher and turned his tails into claws again.

"Drop him, Proxy." Zhu Yuan ordered, her firearm aimed at him with every single attachment armed.

Qingyi held her staff out to him with electricity racing down it violently.

"P-Please, get me away from this freak! I'm begging you!" The man kicked at Eous to no avail.

Eous leered over at the two with disinterest. He wasn't planning on anymore than a punch back, but thinking on it, odds are he would've caved the man's face in had he retaliated in the moment.

Eous sighed and tossed the man over to the two roughly.

"Your lucky day this little collab got green-lit. Won't happen again." Eous threatened the man with a smile.

He was quick to crawl over and try and cower behind Qingyi's legs, but he was swiftly apprehended and placed in cuffs.

"According to New Eridu laws and regulations, my colleague and I are arresting you for illegal possession of a dangerous weapon and endangering the safety of others. What's your name?" Zhu Yuan gave him his charges while bringing out a digital notepad.

"Carlo Maroon..." The man solemnly gave up.

"Thank you for cooperating, Mr. Maroon. You have the right to remain silent. Once we're out of the Hollow, you can contact a lawyer or get assistance from the Attorney's Association."

"Yeah, well, when that freak's on your side, what else am I supposed to do?!" Carlo whined.

Qingyi looked at Eous and saw his tails slink away into seemingly nowhere, grinning at the three mischievously.

"My work here's done, officers. Maybe you'll catch me next time?"

"Wait a second-" Zhu Yuan's cry fell on deaf ears. In an instant, he leapt away and made his way to the nearest exit.

The two sighed at the missed opportunity of turning him in too, but something else came to mind.

"I hope the precinct's carrot data can get us out..." Qingyi mumbled, making Zhu Yuan and Carlo fear the worst.