Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[siobhancan99]

Monica eyed the hot cop a moment, because she had just committed an act of violence and that Centauri need to celebrate with sex was kicking in. She tamped that down though and nodded "Hey there. before you ask, yes it's me." She kept the one guy held close "cuff that guy and I'll keep this guy in place till you can clear the weapon and so on."

 

[Halcyon638]

The officer nodded. She could see the young man’s hands shaking holding his weapon as he moved toward the criminal who had surrendered. “Sure, yeah,” he said in response to Monica’s directions. He grabbed the submachine gun and took the ammo, then placed the weapon down on a box-shaped part of the ship behind him.

“Alright, asshole,” the cop said, approaching the still-standing criminal. The words sounded forced coming out of his mouth, like a religious kid trying to impress his schoolyard friends, and the crook smirked at him as Koloshenko mirandized him before applying the cuffs. In the distance, sirens sounded.

“That was supposed to be my backup,” the cop said to Monica, wiping sweat off his forehead. He wasn't looking at her, though, instead seeming to be staring off into the middle distance.

 

[siobhancan99]

"well lucky for you you didn't need it." Monica looked in the direction the boy was a moment, then back at him "How did you get pinned down over there anyway? What the fuck happened here, if you don't mind my asking"

 

[Halcyon638]

“Guess I didn’t,” he said as the sirens started to sound a little closer. “I was patrolling this area. I saw someone who’d been hit—one of the bad guys, I think? When I went to help him, there they were. Like, these guys and friends. Loading stuff into this truck. Everybody was shooting at each other. Everything was…” There was a slight Eastern European intonation to some of his words.

He pitched forward for a moment, cheeks puffing out momentarily as if he was going to vomit. Nothing happened. “Sorry,” he said, pulling himself back up straight and shaking his head. He took a deep breath. “I should, um...take down your statement?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica looked at him with some sympathy, but not much as nobody was dead. "You going to be ok there?" She gestured "do you want to sit maybe? You look like you're not handling this particularly well" THe accent was strange "where are you from anyway?" She tried to get him to talk about himself a bit, just to see if she could distract him into not thinking about his brush with death.

 

[Halcyon638]

The police officer nodded. “Fine. Yeah, I’m good,” he said as flashing lights began to be visible in the distance, regaining his composure or at least feigning it well enough. “Wishing you hadn’t seen that, though. Embarrassing myself in front of the superhero.”

He stepped a little ways away, looking over the railing of the ship. “I’m from here. Prospect City. My mom was Russian. You? I guess you can’t tell me anything,” he said, making a motion indicating the mask with which she covered her face. “It’s okay.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"No I can't really talk about my childhood in Provence without giving away I'm French." She chuckled "It's not really safe for me." She looked over the two guys then back to the cop. He was hot, shame she couldnt drag him home for a little time with Gabi without giving up her identity. "At least you can get back to your boyfriend or girlfriend safe tonight."

 

[Halcyon638]

A wry smile crossed the young man’s lips at her Provence remark. “Your secret’s safe with me, Ms.” The emergency vehicles sped toward the docks now. “Thanks for that, by the way. You know. Saving my life. I’m still trying to figure out the whole ‘having a social life’ thing when you work overnights all the time,” he said in response to her comments about going home. “Any tips?”

A trio of squad cars was not far up the road now.

 

[siobhancan99]

"Find someone you can be honest with. Also take naps" She chuckled "And maybe don't tell her you nearly got yourself killed. My partner doesn't handle that as well as I'd like. " She listened a moment "Alright, I should head out before someone decides vigilante's aren't their favorite." She made her way to the side of the ship and jumped easily back to shore, then summoned the sliver.

 

[Halcyon638]

“This is good advice,” Koloshenko said with a grin. “Thank you again, Ms.. Maybe we’ll see each other around again?” There was a tinge of hopefulness to his question.

Lingering thoughts kept Monica awake late again, leaving her dragging in her calculus and computational methods courses the next morning.

The FBI was proceeding with an investigation into HelixCorp for ties to Alex Sutter’s death, prompting a statement and multiple press conferences from top brass at the company. Even if nothing came of it, the company’s shares had taken a dive in the last few days, and CEO Rebecca Sawyer (who Sutter had been none too fond of) was apparently feeling the heat.

When Monica arrived at Melanie’s office, the door was open already. The red-haired woman was wearing her black-frame glasses and staring intently at her tablet. “Come in,” she said, noticing Monica, the tension on her face dissolving instantly into a warm smile. Seeing the younger woman’s expression, that smile slipped away.

“Please, have a seat. What do you need to talk about today?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica had worn a short black skirt, fishnets, combat boots and a black top. Her hair was pulled back and she had done a smokey eye and black lipstick to match her mood. Flopping on the couch, Monica hmmmed and looked out the window. "When I was a kid, my mom was an artist. Before everything happened. At home...she used to do all this art that was I dunno. Ayn Randian exultation of the power of the self." Tucking her knee up under her chin, heedless about the effect it might have on the observer as her skirt rode up. She continued a moment "But as time went by, and then especially after the homeworld was gone, it was all this... bleak sort of exploration of loneliness even in a crowd. This sort of theme of complete alienation. Of not belonging." She screwed up her mouth a bit "I used to wonder which one she was. Really, inside. I guess the answer is that she was both of those people really. That the one almost created the other. She was a goddess who had a mortal face, and eventually that mortal face suffocated her." She sighed and put her foot back down on the floor, then got up and got some water from the little office cooler thing. She stared out the window "This conquering queen, trapped in her guise as a high school art teacher. Stifling normality imposed on her to support my need to be a normal American kid. Slowly crushing her. Surrounded at all times by people she could never really relate to. People who had nothing in common with her. People that in her heart of hearts she knew she was better than. But in being better than them she had nobody to turn to. Nobody to comfort her. The loneliness must have been unbearable."

She sighed and sat on the arm of the couch, folding her arms "There was another one of us. A guy. A beautiful... beautiful guy. He was my friend. I wanted him to teach me how to fight because no matter how good or skilled a human is, they won't ever know what it is to be so massively strong as we are. For a while at least. At some point, like all guys, he decided being friends wasn't enough. I thought it was typical guy bullshit you know? pretty girl smiles at you she must wanna suck your fucking dick right?" She folded her arms over her chest "I deflected a little, let him know I was happy with my relationship. It didn't take." She shifted her attention back to Mel finally and sighed. "At least I thought. you know? He got increasingly crazy. Increasingly demanding. He told Gabi she could never make me happy. Only he could. I assumed it was this whole." She trailed off "I'm not sure I told you but I'm legitimately some kind of princess. Centauri are this weird mix of Nietzschean superman and weird hierarchal caste-obsessed geneaology-obsessed... space nazis? I guess. I just assumed my genetic purity was too much for him to handle and he had to get some of all this" She gestured at herself, tone full of bitter self-deprecation. "And being Centauri, I let myself think all of that was about me. And I didnt pay any fucking attention to what was really going on. I made it about me like I always fucking do."
Hot tears streamed down her face and she covered it with a hand "even now. Bawling my god damn eyes out like I have any right to."

 

[Halcyon638]

Melanie sat and listened, clearly doing her level best to not react too strongly. Still, Monica could see the concern etched into her features. That expression mingled with confusion at the story went on and she alluded to the events with Thalmer.

The older woman handed Monica a box of Kleenex without lowering her gaze. “What was it? What was ‘really going on?’ ”

 

[siobhancan99]

She took the kleenex and stared down at the floor a moment before blowing her nose. "He was like her. You know. This place wasn't for him but he couldn't go back. He wasn't brave enough to make this place his. The place where he made sense was gone." She bit her lip and looked up "So he decided to die. But ... pride. fear. pride and fear? I dunno. He wasn't able to just do it. So he threatened Gabi and her family. He made me come for him. He made me beat him down within an inch of his life before he summoned up the courage to throw himself over a cliff. I had to watch it. I had to watch my friend die. Because if I didn't he'd have done it again. He'd have hurt someone to make me be there when he went out."

 

[Halcyon638]

Melanie put a hand to her mouth. “Monica.” She sat in silence in a moment, letting the news sink in. “That is…words are really inadequate at a time like this. I’m so sorry that you went through this.”

She extended her hand across her desk and offered it to Monica. “And you’re afraid that you’re like this friend of yours? And your mother?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica wiped her tears "no. No. I... at least not now? you know? I was raised here. I'm an American. I have this. I have Gabi. I have friends. I belong here. Sort of. It is weird though, you know? It's hard not being able to tell people and maybe I should?" She sighed "No I. I feel like I failed and that's why Thalmer is dead. He took that power away from me. I have to live with that failure forever and he doesn't have to and that's so unfair. I have to live with watching his body fall on the rocks and break. I have to live with the memory of pummeling him until his bullshit machismo allowed him to take the plunge. I have to have this memory of him as someone I liked and hated all rolled into one. And yeah. I guess I do have to wonder if some day the fact that I can do the things I do will separate me from everyone around me too much. Honestly, before Tom died I never even felt the need to use my gifts. I could have just been a fucking soccer mom."

 

[Halcyon638]

The red-haired professor nodded and quietly adjusted her position in the chair. “It’s not uncommon for people who lose a friend to suicide to have the sort of conflicting emotions you’re having. You’re angry at your friend for making you experience this but at the same time you’re still taking on the responsibility to an extent…you say that you ‘failed’ him.”

Pausing for a moment, she said, “Monica…it was not your responsibility to save this man who from the sounds of it never communicated to that he was in a mental health crisis. It wasn’t your responsibility to mend his feelings after he didn’t respect your boundaries or your wishes. It’s not unusual for someone who loses a friend in this way to feel guilty, but…it really sounds to me as if he was emotionally manipulating you without any real thought about the lasting impacts on you, on Gabi. And I feel that you can—that you do recognize this is unfair to you. I’m not trying to tear down your friend—we can absolutely still care for those who are flawed…deeply flawed. But I want you to think about what you can do to unburden yourself of that guilt. If another one of your friends—if it had been Gabi in the same situation you were in—would you think she was a failure for not preventing a friend of hers for dying by suicide? If that friend had treated her the way this man treated you?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"I mean, to be fair I also beat the crap out of him first so it isn't the same. but. I take your point. A little. I'm just... tired. I'm tired and sad and my girlfriend is." She gestured "off with her parents. And I'm alone and stuck with my own thoughts and it sucks a lot. I'm glad you're here. It isn't easy for me, you know, talking. About anything."

 

[Halcyon638]

Melanie nodded. “It sounds as though you were doing what you thought you needed to to protect yourself and Gabi,” she replied. “I know this probably doesn’t make it any easier right now. But you should try to think about all the people whose lives you’ve saved. It’s easy to focus on the negative and the most painful memories. But you’ve made a great difference in only a few months’ time.”

Taking off her glasses for a moment, the red-haired woman said, “If I can…just speak as your friend for a moment. I know a little something about being alone with painful thoughts. I have a class coming up but if you’d like to catch a ride with me after that, you’re more than welcome to spend some time at the house. I could throw something together for dinner.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Sitting up she fired off a text to Gabi to find out when she was getting back "Lemme check in with Gabi and see if she's still coming back tonight and if so what time, but honestly that sounds really nice." She inhaled and let out a long slow breath "Sorry it is hard for me to talk. Like, I have all these gifts and so talking about what's bothering me always seems like whining."

 

[Halcyon638]

Melanie began to stand up from her chair. “Absolutely. Gabi’s always welcome as well. Or I can drive you back whenever she’s in town.”

Gabi replied almost instantaneously. “Dad’s going to drive me after work so probably 7:30 or 8:00?”

The professor wore a sympathetic expression. “That’s a common hurdle for many people, Monica. It takes courage to push back those resistances some of us have built up or had ingrained in us. It might be helpful to think about this not being just about benefiting you. Taking care of ourselves can help us have more to offer the people we care most about.”

She began to pack up her computer and other items for class. “Did Gabi get back to you? You’re free to spend the hour in here if you’d prefer.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded "she's getting in after dinner, so yeah I'll hang out here and wait for you to be done. I honestly haven't really slept so maybe I'll grab a nap on the couch and clean myself up a little so I don't look like some late 1990s goth-punk horror show" she gestured at her makeup. "Thanks, Mel. For being here."

 

[Halcyon638]

“Please. Get comfortable.” She managed a smile. “You certainly pulled off that look better than I ever could.”

Despite the intermittent noise from the hallway of students roaming and chatting, Monica managed to fall asleep. When the professor returned, it was a little before 3:00. “I just need to make a quick stop and pick up some green onions on the way home,” Melanie noted. “Maybe you can help me decide on dessert?”

They arrived at the older woman’s home a bit past 4. Melanie excused herself to go upstairs to change, and soon came down in a pair of black yoga pants and a dark blue T-shirt reading “Joshua Tree National Park.” It was the first time Monica could recall seeing the woman in anything but professional wear. “I have to admit. It’s a little exciting to be cooking for more than one person for once,” she said as she began gathering the ingredients for ramen bowls, “though I’d describe my culinary skills as serviceable at best. So, who’s the better cook in your apartment?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica checked the older woman out a little, after all it had been nearly a week and she was only human. Mel was stunning and she wasn't going to pretend otherwise just because she was in a relationship. She only indulged briefly however, then set about helping, getting bowls and such here and there. "I'm definitely the savory cook. Gabi and her mother had a contentious time in her teens, whereas I was so resentful of my own mother leaving I basically glommed onto Sara as a surrogate mother. I can cook everything Gabi loved growing up and it tastes pretty much the same as Sara's version. Gabi... Well lets just say she can order a pizza like the best of them."

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica, in turn, couldn’t help but notice Melanie’s eyes being drawn to her occasionally, particularly to her legs, barely concealed by the short skirt and fishnets. The older woman smiled. “Ah. We’ll just say this falls under counselor-patient privilege,” she said to Monica’s assessment of Gabi’s cooking skills.

“Paige wasn’t really a cook, either. Or didn’t really want to try to learn.” Still sporting a slight grin, she said, “You can overlook a lot when you’re in love.”

The red-haired woman dipped a spoon into the broth, took a whiff, and then took a sip. “Come here a moment. Would you taste this for me?” She extended the spoon. “Tell me if you think it needs more ginger.” Melanie blew gently on the steaming liquid. “It’s a little hot.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica leaned in. She knew Mel was kind of flirting but it was harmless enough. She tugged at the spoon with her lips "It's good. i like it. Plus if you have leftovers it will get stronger and you don't want to kill yourself tomorrow" She licked her lips "and yeah as for cooking. Well Gabi and I'm sure Paige had other fine qualities."

She chuckled "though you know, every once in a while it is nice to relax and let someone else take care of you for a change. Instead of always doing the heavy lifting."