New York: New York City

Compactor ignores poor Seraphim for now, glaring dagger at Virtue. She tosses the dented book, which, ironically, seemed to be a copy of the Bible, to the side, hands on her hips as she approached him.

"You don't even know what the god damn -dewey decimal system- is? How'd you get a scholarship and I didn't?"

Of course, that wasn't the real reason she was mad, but shhh. Can't say anything.

Extending his hands out but forgetting to let go of the wall and tearing out two large pieces of concrete, Virtue shrugs.

"I was, uh...good at biology? Probably. Maybe I was just the only one that applied for the scholarship. Want a hug?"

Seraphim turns around suddenly when she hears the book throwing commotion, and accidentally knocks the shelf with her wings. It falls and the others behind it follow like dominoes.

"Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh!!!"

Comapctor stared at his hands and the chunks of concrete. God DAMNIT. That was like, number 47 this month. This boy was going to be the death of her.

"No, I don't want a hug."

She complained, arms folding over her chest as she glared at the wall next to him, practically pouting, albeit unintentionally. This happens when you keep emotion bottled up, sweety.

Dropping the concrete from her hands and moving himself up to jump behind her, he then proceeds to turn around and wrap his arms around her from behind. Shortly after, he runs over to Seraphim, picks her up, and runs out of the library.

"Not my fault if they can't say I did it! It was somebody else who can tear concrete out of walls."

"If you're going to keep calling me Mina, then can I call you Johnathan?" She giggled. Two can play at this game.

"Wouldn't be hard to find a crook at this time of the night. All I have to do is track down any negative thoughts and... ah." She lands on the floor and steps into the shop. Thankfully she didn't need to be invited in to actually enter; thank goodness THAT part of the myth is false. Too bad the others weren't.

From where she was standing, she closes the door behind her through telekinesis and walks towards the shelf denoting books of Mythology. With each book she eyed and thought of as possibly containing useful information, it is pulled out from its position and orbits Signal to be read now or later. Then she spots another shelf, this time denoting Horror books. These would do, yes. They had quite the selection, actually, from the classic (wow, they even have Carmilla!) to the more modern series. ...maybe not this one. Signal took one good look at the cover and immediately put it back. Hmm? Salem's Lot? She hadn't read this one before.

Now with a good amount of books circling her head and torso, she stacks them all and begins with the mythology books. All this, done without even once touching the books, though the books themselves are handled delicately enough that when put back no one will even suspect they were read.

Compactor jumped a little at the hug from behind, a light smile tugging at her lips until he's suddenly he's picking her up and dear fucking god what was he DOING? She let out a yelp of surprise, even more so when there were suddenly obnoxious white feathers in her face. God damnit, Virtue.

"What the hell are you doing!? Oh, come on! Put me down!"

She complained, lightly pounding on his back with one fist.

"Oh gosh oh gosh I knocked over the shelves and ruined the nice library!!" Seraphim's wings look twice as big as her feathers flare in panic. She looks down and sees she's still holding the two books.

"We have to go back! I didn't put these back on the shelf!! ...And I didn't put the shelf back on the floor!"

Hopping off of the library and-holy fuck, that's a long jump. Either way, he makes it to the nearest building and puts them both down, putting his hands on his hips in the usual fashion.

"Don't worry about it! We can check books out from the library, and shelves are supposed to be knocked over."

Compactor lets out a breath that she didn't even realize she was holding, staring at Virtue for a moment before putting her hand over her face and laughing. It wasn't a joyous laugh. It was more like one of those laughs where you're on the verge of breaking into tears.

"Dear fucking God. I swear, one of these days you're going to get me killed, Virtue."

"Aw man, I thought I would be more of a Van Helsing. Here's a deal: you can call me Erik and I'll call you Mina, hmm?" Phantom turns his head to see the floating books and doesn't bat an eye.

Stranger things could happen.

"You know, actually buying some books would help support the owners. They're nice people! This isn't a library, Count." With a few books in hand, he walks towards the counter and places them down on it. With ease, he vaults over the counter top and opens the register.

"R-really? Is it like exercise for people? That's a pretty good idea! People might not get any activity if they just read." She reasons. "Oh! Look!" she flips the book open to the chapter from which she took her name. "I found a name! Seraphim! It sounds like a name and I like it!" Seraphim smiles at her friends, not really understanding what was going on between them.

Signal skimmed through each book, looking for key words. Weaknesses, strengths, origins, anything. "Sure... Erik. And I could, but I currently have no way to store them. I had a home, which was my RV. Then... well, have you heard what happened to Eagleopolis? We can just say I lost my home there and be done with that." As each book was fully skimmed through, it was placed back in its appropriate spot, all but the Salem's Lot book. The summary on the back sounded interesting, and the author seemed familiar.

"This one I'm buying. To take with me when... when my mentor decides that it's time to go to his place. Nothing to do and all that."

"Yes, yes. People exercise. People do that, I think-well, Compactor doesn't, but she says that's because she gets enough exercise trying to keep me from murdering myself and others. Then, she always complains at me about how she weighs too much, or that she feels fat, or that I shouldn't fall asleep inside her bathtub. Really, she's not fat, and her bathtub is comfortable."

Looking at the book and seeing the name 'Seraphim', Virtue just shrugs.

"Yeah, I guess it works. I still like whatever name I suggested a few pages ago, though."

"Mm, sounds good." Phantom mumbled, not really listening. The register of the book shop opened with a loud DING and he rifled through the papers inside. His faint grin grew a little wider as he counted in his head. "Doing well, Mr. and Mrs. Chester." he mumbled to himself.

The Phantom dug through his pockets and took out a couple of bills, placing them in the money register and closing it dramatically.

"I paid for your book. We should get out of here and lock up, wouldn't want your dinner to raid this nice old place before becoming your snack now, hmm? Crooks these days just don't give a shit about who they rob. Oh wait." he mocked, sentence dripping with sarcasm.

"You could always keep some junk in my place. You don't actually seem so bad, so I'll trust you for now. How about it, Mina?"

"I can't pronounce that..." Seraphim looks at the ground sheepishly.

Compactor can't help but let out a small laugh, smiling slightly at Seraphim's innocence. Really, as irritated as she may get, it was precious. Her lack of memory gave her a clean slate. Christ, sometimes she wished she had that.

"Seraphim is a nice name."

She remarked before turning to shoot a glare at Virtue's little comments on her personal remarks. Damnit, boy. Why can't you keep your mouth shut?

"I complain no more than a normal young woman, and you -shouldn't- sleep in my bathtub. Not only does it keep causing my roommate to break down from shock, but you'll end up hurting your back, and I don't wanna deal with that."

Of course, a little part of her grew warm and content at the fact he didn't think she was fact. Of course, she'd never admit it.

"Sure, Erik, and thank you... but don't expect me to visit often. I... tend to travel very far. Flying's... impossible.

"Plus, if any crooks come in here to rob the place, well... I won't drain 'em, but I sure as hell will make them wish I did."

Signal hears something to her right. It's faint, but it definitely stands out from the rest of the noise of the city... it's shouting. No, scream—wait. It's pleading.

"I hear something going on over to my right. Wanna follow?"

Phantom smiles at her seemingly new found attachment to the store. "I'm sure. You seem like the person to be all mysterious and disappearing every other Thursday. If you weren't I wouldn't have offered my residence! Socializing is overrated."

He notices Signal's attention being drawn elsewhere and he tries to follow her gaze. He can't hear what she is sensing at the moment, but it doesn't feel right. The Phantom's expression turns more serious and he nods.

"Yeah."

"Alrighty then, let's do this." Signal runs towards the source of the sound. While flying is fine, it'd scare away the people she'd want apprehended. By looking more human, you trap... no, no, NO.

Thankfully, the surroundings were dark enough to hide her odder features since Signal finally finds the source of the noise: a rather old and worn apartment building, its second floor light on. For anyone with normal hearing and standing where Signal is, they'd hear the muffled cries of a woman under assault and the screams of a man. To Signal herself, though, both voices are crystal clear in her head.

"Huh. That's... depressing." Once Erik arrives, she'd ask him, "I'd interfere if only due to fearing for the woman's life, but what do you think?"

Phantom is close behind Signal, and it doesn't take him long to connect the dots. A flash of something passes through his eyes as she asks him the question.

"What is there to think about?"

He immediately runs towards the outside wall of the apartment. Using the momentum, The Phantom steps up the side of the wall and climbs for a good meter high until he grabs a windowsill. He swings back and forth several times before jumping for the fire escape ladder, utilizing his constant momentum to gracefully land on the rails of the metal platform. He can now clearly hear and see the silhouettes of several offenders and victims.

The Phantom gives Signal a sharp glare from his perch, as if saying 'Are you coming or not?'

'Yeah, yeah,' she gestures and flies up to Erik's level.

Now in front of the window, Signal pulls her right fist back, the fist itself glowing with a faint but malevolent blue energy. If she did this right...

The inside of the apartment reveals a man and a woman arguing, though what they were arguing about was lost many hours ago after the beating began. The woman was cowering in a corner, pleading for the man to get away and just leave her life; his reply is that she can suck a dick (his dick, to be precise) and to get back up and face her if she wants to "keep touting those big ol' words about being a strong woman."

As he's about to walk over and maybe punt the woman in the head, his apartment window shatters but the glass of the window falls to the floor with no momentum to it.

"Hi there!" Signal tells the man. "I just happened to overhear you having a beat-em-up party and you didn't even invite me! How silly, right?"

Phantom rolled his eyes at Signal's super power show. No need to break a window, opening it would be just as fine. This wasn't some hideout for criminals or something. He stepped into the apartment through the broken window and made no move to start the fight, waiting for the fool to charge first.

"That's no way to treat a lady." The Phantom grinned. "They must be treated with the utmost of care. Did you speak to your mother with that mouth?"

The man snapped out of his surprise and snarled at the two heros that this was none of their business. He reached to grab the woman by the collar of the shirt when Phantom acted.

In less time than it takes to blank an eye, The Phantom had travelled across the room and lunged out with a kick. It hit the target and smacked that man's reach away from the woman. He stumbled back towards the door and stared wide-eyed at the costumed teen, looking back and forth between him and Signal.

Seraphim is once again in the air, flying in lazy circles close to the ground. She clutches the books tightly to her chest and nervously tries to spit out what's on her mind. She feels very brave for how she's handled the events of the night so far and manages to get the words out with that as encouragement.

"Maybe...maybe you guys know of another bathtub that I can stay in? I don't exactly really want to go back to the hospital where they think I'm a miracle...I don't think I want to be an angel." She glances down at the book preaching fire and brimstone. "I should have read a book on mutations before I ruined all the shelves. I bet people with mutations aren't expected to burn everything not totally perfect in 'God's' eyes to the ground." Her bitter distaste for religion is a stark contrast to her normally polite shyness. Perhaps there is more "warrior archangel" in her than it first seemed.

Signal looks at the man and tells him in a rather dry tone, "Now, this situation isn't exactly in your favor so I'll give you two options: you can turn yourself in and, I dunno, go to jail to do the time for what you've done..."

She walks up to the man, holding him by his shoulders (he tried to struggle away, but Signal had to exert a bit more of her strength in order to keep him in place) and bearing her fangs through an innocent-seeming smile. "Or you can take what's behind Door Number 2, though I'm not sure if you'll like that one."

And here the man was between a rock and a hard place. It was very clear now that the lady who broke his window wasn't human at all and the boy with her would definitely outclass him in a fight. He would think this were it not for his rage clouding his logic somewhat and giving Signal a clear answer via an uppercut to the jaw. The vampire looked at the man with a glare of disappointment, completely unphased by the physical impact.

"Alright, Door Number 2 it is." Signal took her hands off of the man's shoulders and slugged him in the face. She would hope that, keeping her strength to a minimum, he'd get back up, they'd get in a fistfight, and she could take the beaten man to a police station in the hopes that they'd a) immediately not fire on Signal and b) arrest him with both the testimony of the abused woman and Erik's own testimony. So when the man didn't get up after being hit in the face, this worried her greatly. She checked his pulse and... he's still alive, thankfully, just out cold. She checked her hands and her right hand was still glowing a faint blue. Whoops.

"...I was hoping this would take a little longer."