Freelancers and syndicate members aren’t the only game in town. There are plenty of unlicensed, under-the-radar folks that make a living keeping the streets clean. They aren’t there to make a name for themselves; they exist just to make things better. The big difference between these and Freelancers, aside from keeping things very quiet, is that they tend to stick to neighborhoods. Logic says that they keep to their own locations, but that’s not necessarily true either. Just last week a van full of masked vigilantes were pulled over on the 102 for speeding while heading up to Little Italy, a known patrol area of theirs. They all had addresses from either the Waterfront or the Warrens.
There comes a time when small crime must be taken on in small measures, and these upstarts and vigilantes seem to be the vehicle driving that. Ordinary citizens, tired of the collateral damage caused by inter-gang violence, or worse (usually) the Freelancers, can quietly raise a grassroots effort to get some of the crime out of their neighborhoods. It usually starts with a neighborhood watch, and then a neighborhood safety patrol, and then evolves to a few select people doing bad things to bad people for the good of the community.
It is best if people don’t know who these do-gooders are. Anonymity is their friend. It is also crucial that these people make it known to the local criminal elements that they are no longer afraid of what the gangs will do. They’ve seen what the gangs do; they’ve lived it and possibly were touched personally by it. They’ve had enough, and they’ve been pushed into action. The risk involved is if the vigilante starts drawing the attention of the larger crime syndicates. Once that has been done, they may either try to be recruited or will be targeted.
There are a number of these groups and individuals in Wellstone, and it is thought that they are communicating through underground networks. The Wellstone City Prophet was once thought to be supplying information to them, but after its razing, there seems to be more of these upstarts, and they seem to be better organized. They are an extreme minority, to be sure, but they are present and they are making themselves known.