StV: Florida Man, part seven

The Sheriff's deputy was everything Cloudburst had been worried he would be: white, male, extremely fit, and very suspicious of their group. She couldn't entirely blame him for that last one; Rachel had given everyone time to pull their costumes on before he arrived, so none of them were showing their faces. 

"So this bunch of Dev -- of Anomalies -- wants to go help capture their fellow Anomaly?" He looked us over. "Doesn't seem right."

Cloudburst said, "We don't want Florida Man blackening the name of other, decent Anomalies, Sir."

He scowled. "I'd feel better if I could see your faces," he said.

"I've seen you dressed for crowd control exercises," Rachel said gently. "C'mon, Steve, it's not that different. And it's no wonder they want to keep their faces hid, if you're going to be like this."

He looked them over again, then sighed. "No, I guess not. And if we can bring this guy in, that's what counts. I just..." He turned to look at Cloudburst. "I'm sorry. I haven't worked with Anomalies before."

Cloudburst chuckled. "If it helps, we haven't worked with law enforcement before, either.  But with somebody like this, it feels wrong not to help out -- even if we do take some steps to protect our identities."

Steve nodded slowly. "All right. I can respect that. You do right by me, I'll do right by you too. Credit and everything." He was watching her closely.

Cloudburst drew a breath. "I'm not sure we want credit," she said after a moment. "If we get this guy, maybe it's just... arrested by the Sheriff's Department with the help of a group of concerned citizens. I'd appreciate it if you'd let some of your colleagues know that those concerned citizens were Anomalies, but this isn't a publicity exercise for us."

"Huh," said Steve. "All right. I'm in. Rachel, you got the boat ready to go?"

She nodded. "And a few extra supplies in case we need them."