AE 312.4.12.
There was a lot of shouting coming from a quite extravagant mansion, located around the western edge of town. The leader of the Fireflies, Gregory Brann, was running out of options and the stress was getting to him.
There was a new bounty hunter in town and he couldn't get rid of him no matter what he tried. At first he thought things would play out like usual, find out who they are, try to recruit them an if that didn't work persuade them to leave.
The problem wasn't with the bounty hunter since they were obviously not really strong and definitely not a professional, but whoever he sent out would either return terribly beaten, with no recollection of what happened to them, or disappear without a trace.
The logical conclusion was that they were dealing with some rich kid who was playing vigilante and who also had at least two competent bodyguards, one more ruthless than the other.
The only way they could find out who they were dealing with exactly was to either ask the ones who got turned in or the officer they were turned in to. The problem was that both of these options would require a mole in the station, but they didn't have one for weeks now and it wasn't likely they could get one anytime soon.
In his desperation, Gregory decided to ask someone much higher in the chain of command to deal with the situation, but if they failed as well, he might have to get involved personally otherwise his whole organization would fall apart around him.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, a related but a tonally much different conversation was taking place.
"Ma'am, there seems to be a new bounty hunter around."
The lady being spoken to was Helen Drage, she was the leader of the Green Dragons and the second richest person in the county. She was in the middle of a business meeting when she got the news so a few people had to be kicked out of the room to continue the conversation.
"Anyone we should worry about?"
Unlike Gregory, this was her first time hearing about this so her reaction was a lot more measured.
"No, he's a teenage boy who started out only recently. So far he only attacked members of the Fireflies."
This was the best case scenario for them. Experienced hunters walking around was always a liability, but a newbie is easy to manipulate. Even without that, people that young would choose targets following either their sense of justice or their wallet. In the first case, the Fireflies were the obvious target, although the dragons were criminals as well, most people would consider their crimes to be less severe since they didn't go around deliberately harming innocent people.
The second case was even better, since she could pay a lot more money, even out of pocket, than whatever bounty the tax department put on her head. With that in mind she approached the issue with a positive mindset.
"We should probably leave him be, or even support him. If he becomes successful, then that arrogant pyromaniac will have to leave us alone for a change."
She made that decision with the understanding that they were dealing with an absolute rookie, but what she heard next caused a change in her plans.
"That has already happened. We are still waiting for some clarification, but it seems like a few of their low level executives were already dealt with, without being turned in."
This meant that the boy wasn't as unreliable as she thought. It also decided something very important.
"So it is justice. Hey Manda, I think it's time you started making friends."
Around the same time a third person was also in deep thought, trying to solve a new dilemma. The Ambolt police chief was trying to figure out what he should do with the hunter kid. It really shouldn't have been as hard as it was.
There were numerous times when children tried to play superheroes and angered the wrong people. In cases like these they would inform the parents about the problem and try to talk with the gangsters, convincing them not to make a big deal out of it.
The problems started when they called the kid's guardian, famous reporter Anthony Williams, and the man started acting like a clueless idiot. He would deny anything they told him and then he started complaining about them not doing their job properly.
The negotiations with the Fireflies went even worse since they lost a lot more people than the police knew about. They were forced to back off because Brann was seemingly ready to declare open war on the police if they continued to try and talk them down.
Funnily enough, this resulted in the first time where a young bounty hunter's problem would be solved by talking to them directly. To make sure everything went well he would talk to the kid personally.