Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

Gabi stroked Monica’s sodden hair, looking down into her best friend’s eyes. “Fuck,” the brunette muttered breathlessly, bracing herself against the wet linoleum as her lover attended to her curves and the most sensitive places on her womanly body.

Monica felt the younger girl grasp her hair and give it a quick, perhaps inadvertent tug as she continued to eat the Latina’s pussy. Closing her eyes again, Gabi shifted her hand so that it was behind Monica’s head, pulling her mouth in tight. “Oh, fuck…Baby…” Her low, steady moans seemed to raise an octave in pitch as she responded to the blonde girl’s touch.

 

[siobhancan99]

Pressing her mouth firmly against Gabi's lips, she lavished her with attention. Her agile tongue darted across the tip of GAbi's clit, her oft lips sealed around it. She pulled gently, increasing the pressure slowly, her mouth tugging firmly now. Her green eyes looked up along GAbi's body, watching the water bead on her soft skin and rivulets of it run down her supple flesh. She moaned, taking as much delight in pleasing her lover as she had in being pleased.

 

[Halcyon638]

One hand on the back of Monica’s head, Gabi’s other hand went to her own light brown nipple, caressing first, then squeezing as her lover continued to please her. When Monica started to tug on Gabi’s clit, the brunette’s eyes flickered and rolled.

Gabi began to whimper, the sounds increasing in pace and volume with every loving stroke of Monica’s tongue and every bit of suction she applied to the Latina’s clit. “Ohhhh god.”

The dark-eyed girl let out a sudden, sharp cry that turned into a slow, rolling moan, her body going rigid against Monica’s face before slowly relaxing again. As the moan dissolved into a few short gasps, Gabi’s back was no longer against the shower wall. Instead, she was hunched over her girlfriend, burying her hands in Monica’s golden locks, full breasts dangling above the older girl.

She kissed the top of Monica’s head, then her forehead, then slid her arms down to Monica’s back to coax her to her feet before placing kiss after kiss on her lips and neck.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica stood, pressing Gabi against the wall of the shower. She sighed, burying her face in Gabi's neck, planting soft kisses along the line of her pulse. She ran her hands over gabi's hips, up her sides. She explored slowly, running het pads of her fingers over shower-slick skin. "i needed you baby." she pressed her forehead against her lover's, closing her eyes "i'm glad you're home. with me." She'd come to think of this place as home, their home, as opposed to their parent's place "where you belong."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi wrapped her arms around Monica. The younger girl smiled at her lover’s sentiments. “Me, too, carino. Mi querida.” She turned the shower knob, shutting off the spray, then kissed Monica’s lips again deeply.

The two girls got dried off and as they'd discussed, Gabi let Monica rest her head on her lap, stroking the blonde girl’s hair until the older girl fell asleep.

***

Monica had just two classes on Thursday, finishing up at 11:30, while Gabi’s schedule took her to a little past 4. The blonde-haired girl was on her way out of her Survey of Asian History course and was scrolling the news when she saw a headline that read, BODY OF SUSPECT IN CANADIAN BILLIONAIRE KILLINGS RECOVERED.

The article itself was brief, reporting on a body being pulled from the dam where she’d fought Thalmer and providing a short summary of his suspected connections to Sutter and HelixCorp, still under investigation.

Another story, geographically if not emotionally closer-to-home, also caught Monica’s eye.

"COUNCILMAN KELLEHER AND AIDE DEAD IN PENTHOUSE APARTMENT ATTACK

PROSPECT CITY – 2-term city councilman Jordan Kelleher, 45, and Rachel Randle, his 24-year-old administrative assistant, were found dead late Wednesday evening in Kelleher’s penthouse apartment. Police were summoned to Kelleher’s apartment in the Preston Center neighborhood of Prospect City around 11:00 PM following residents’ reports of gunfire and shattering glass near the 25th-story residence. Kelleher’s wife, Farisa Kelleher, was out of town with Kelleher’s 2-year-old son. Police found Randle and Kelleher dead on the scene with multiple gunshot wounds being the suspected cause of death.

Police are currently investigating leads, with early eyewitness reports suggesting the slayings may have been carried out by drones. When asked about these reports, Chief of Police Robb Bell responded, “We are currently pursuing all leads and can neither confirm nor deny these accounts.”

Jordan Kelleher, originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, was elected to his current office in 2018 after a 13-year-career as a high-profile prosecutor at the firm of McMahon and Travers located in Prospect City. Randle was a Prospect City native, graduating from Hamon Academy before earning a dual BA in Public Policy and Political Science from Stanford University before joining Kelleher’s office in July 2022."

A moment later, Monica received a text from Melanie.

MELANIE: How are you today?

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica dealt with the text first. "ok. gabi and I talked. things are better, not perfect. getting there. talked to her about dif bet emotion and physical invulnerability."

While waiting for a response she started scrolling through more news on the attAck. It was something she wantd to get involved in, but hadn't the faintest idea on how to actually investigate. she brought up what info she could about his building, resolving to head up there that night. She could take a quick look around at least before they left for New York in the morning.

 

[Halcyon638]

With just a few minutes of Googling, Monica pulled up information regarding the building’s address. Although the actual news was still preliminary, social media and other less-than-reputable sources were already running wild with the details, particularly the sordid fact of Kelleher being found dead with a female employee little more than half his age.

Photos were already circulating of Randle and Kelleher at public events standing near one another or looking at one another, pictures that appeared innocuous but were now being held up by the internet as proof of a long-running affair. The prematurely salt-and-pepper-haired man had the look of an ex-quarterback to him and combined with the chipper, wide-eyed charms of his redheaded assistant, Monica had the feeling she would see both of their faces splashed across screens for weeks to come.

The few substantive stories Monica came across were providing a bit more background about Kelleher’s career to date. One article reported that he was among the city council members treated to a lavish, week-long European retreat by the British real estate firm Millstone Holdings under the guise of offering free urban development “consulting” services to the city seemingly in exchange for favorable reworking of zoning and housing regulations to help the Lehman Yards luxury skyrise and condo project get off the ground. Monica vaguely recalled his name from when she and Gabi had been investigating the project.

On the flipside, more recently, he’d been one of the few council members to come out in favor of public transit workers during a strike, and had helped increase funding for substance use disorder treatment programs in some of the more impoverished neighborhoods.

Melanie texted back:

MELANIE: I’m glad you’re doing a little better. Please let me know if you need another appointment this week.

One unverified report on social media came from a user who claimed to have spotted two drones about the size of large birds approaching the building. In the cell phone video he uploaded, though, as the amateur videographer tries to track something through the air with the camera, the image became broken and scrambled, obscuring the objects.

 

[siobhancan99]

"Out of town as of tomorrow" she texted back "girl's week."

She frowned at the connection with the development. It seemed to come up everywhere, and yet she didn't have any solid information on it. It just seemed to loom omnipresent in the background of everything else that was happening. SHe wondered if maybe the councilman had gotten himself a conscience about it, and had to be silenced. She needed to snoop around the apartment, but even if she found something... what then? there'd likely be chain of custody issues and all the things the da complained about in her campaign. That was a worry for another time though, for now she had to figure out a way inside.

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi arrived back at their apartment after her own meeting with Melanie a little after 4:00 PM and began getting ready to protest the anti-immigrant guest speaker, Travis Walder, who was scheduled to speak at 7:30 that evening. “Uggh. Can this week just be over already?” Gabi sighed as she made her way over to where Monica was sitting on the couch and hung her arms over her shoulders. "I'm glad we're going to NYC but honestly I'd be happy to go to, like, New Jersey tomorrow. I just need to get away."

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica had forgotten about the protest. That would have to take precedence. Besides, easier to break into the apartment later in the night. "You're the one out crusading babe." she laughed and kissed Gabi's cheek, then tugged her in "I'll be there, but in uniform. Just to make sure you're safe." She stroked Gabi's arm "Listen I don't think this has to be said, but your people can't give the cops any reason you know? if the counter-protestors are violent, you all have to leave that to the cops. and me. cause you know... I'm the fucking Nighthawk."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi smiled and hugged Monica tightly. “Thank you, querida. Knowing you’ll be watching out there actually makes me feel a lot better. And Ruben really knows his stuff. His mom’s a lawyer and she, like, protested the Iraq War back in the day, so he’s been schooling everybody on how to stay safe. And out of jail.”

The two girls hung out on the couch, Gabi pulling up an actual play stream on the TV to unwind before the hour approached. At around 7, she changed her clothes into more professional garb. “So…a lot of our friends are going to be there, so I figured I’d tell them you got food poisoning or something. Rather than you having to pull a whole Peter Parker thing and like sneak away from a hundred people.”

 

[siobhancan99]

'Good call" Monica made her way out, finding a secluded place to change, then headed over to the location. She was looking for somewhere she wouldn't be in the thick of it, but that she'd be visible to anyone who was. Maybe her presence alone would deter any foolishness.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica found a spot on the balcony to Warrick Hall, which adjoined Parrish Hall where Walder was giving his speech. Large crowds were already beginning to assemble on the green, which was lit by lampposts and the lights of other nearby buildings. From her vantage point, she only spotted about twenty or so people seemingly in the “pro” camp, most of them middle-aged white men, some of them sporting fatigues and intense expressions on their face while bearing signs making their positions clear (and probably bearing other objects, but they weren't in an open-carry state). From the start, they were easily outnumbered 10 to 1 by the protesters, a wide-ranging coalition with representatives from the LSA, Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association, LGBTQ+ Student Union, and other groups, including what appeared to be several faculty members.

Campus security was out in force, and there were a few cops nearby as well. It wasn’t long before Monica spotted familiar faces. Near Gabi were Ruben, Cristina, Hadley, Porter and Layla, while Ian, Eve, and Caleb also showed. Melanie was also standing among a group of faculty.

After a little while, more and more members of the crowd seemed to spot Monica and were motioning in her direction. A few minutes later, she heard the balcony door open. “Now I’m starting to think maybe you’re following me,” Officer Koloshenko said, a gleam to his striking blue-gray eyes, lowering his firearm. “What’s going on up here? Something I should worry about?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"hopefully not. I figured if i came it would be boring, and if I didn't come, it would be a shitshow" She shrugged "so, I erred on the side of making it boring."

She chuckled and looked down at the crowd "at least nobody should be shooting at anyone." She looked over at the hot cop "how are you holding up, anyway? Hell of a night the other night. Figured they'd have you on desk duty."

 

[Halcyon638]

“I’ll definitely take a lot of boring after the other night,” he said with a slight smile. He shrugged. “I’m fine. I played too many violent video games growing up. I’m…dis-sensitized? Sentified? How are you?”

His radio sounded. “ 'Shenko, what’s your 20?”

“I’m on the, uh, balcony of the building. All clear.” He affixed his radio to his uniform again, then walked toward the railing, just three or four feet from where Monica stood. The coppery-haired man looked down over the crowd.

“Do you mind, um…moving away from the edge? I think half the people down there are psyched to see the Nighthawk but the other half are a little nervous you’re some psycho dressed up as Nighthawk.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"being seen is kind of the point. Lurking in the shadows waiting for some stupid shit to happen means stupid shit happens, whereas being here watching... maybe it doesn't" She leaned against the balcony "besides, how do you know I'm not faculty and thus totally allowed to be on this balcony? hmmm? or cleaning staff. or whatever." She chuckled "relax, officer. nobody is going to lose their head because I'm here."

 

[Halcyon638]

Koloshenko nodded as he looked down. “Sorry, they don’t really have anything at the academy about how to deal with masked vigilantes. Or maybe I just missed that day.”

When Monica floated the possibility she belonged on campus, the twenty-something responded, “I guess I don’t know that.” He looked at her again, an earnest expression on his chiseled features. “I want you to know that I’ll do everything possible to keep everyone safe. You, um…I almost thought about quitting this job after a month. Back in October. But then…then I heard about you.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"I'm glad I made a difference. You never know, you know?" She turned and looked over at the earnest young cop "so why were you leaving? lack of results? don't like the work? What else would you have done?'

 

[Halcyon638]

“It was sort of a combination of things,” Koloshenko said. Down below, Ruben was stepping up to a platform to deliver a speech. “Two weeks into the job, I saw my first partner straight up take a bribe from somebody at a club. Then I saw another cop shoot a guy who was just clearly having, like, a mental break. In the leg, luckily but…Finding my first murder victim. I started to think, ‘I’m just one guy who doesn’t know what’s he doing. How can I make a difference?’ ”

He gestured to Monica. “Then you…okay, so I don’t have super strength and a cool, sexy superhero voice, but you’re out here doing this basically alone, so I have no excuse not to try, you know?”

Looking back down at the crowd, Koloshenko said, “Speaking of which, I should probably get down there.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded "probably. Listen, you don't... have to be a cop just because there's a super powered girl out there. You have to do what's right for you. if that's being a cop, be the best cop you can be but if it isn't... We all have to find our way." She leaned forward, scanning the crowd for trouble, hoping between her and the police presence there wouldn't be any.

 

[Halcyon638]

A round of applause and cheering followed Ruben’s speech. The young officer nodded. “If I didn’t go this route, I would probably be getting into trouble. So, it’s good for now.” He smiled and made his way to the balcony door.

Monica settled in, watching the scene for any red flags, or any less obvious signs of potential trouble or threats. There wasn’t that much seeming interaction taking place between the protesting majority and the small minority of counter-protesters. A few minutes later, she spotted Koloshenko and another office standing between the two groups, conferring with their campus security counterparts.

When the speech apparently ended and attendees began to exit Parrish Hall, there was an uptick in shouting from both groups, but the conflict soon dissipated as the counter-protesters were completely drowned out by the larger crowd. A few minutes later, the protesters took on a celebratory air as the small group of counter-protesters decided to leave en masse.

Monica received a text from Gabi:

GABI: Hey babe! Thank you for watching over us. I felt less nervous tonight because of you. A few of us are going to hit a bar near campus but I’m just going to stop in for a little while so I can come home and pack. You still going out tonight?

 

[siobhancan99]

Texting back she replied. "yeah all packed. gonna head out but might not be long. depends on if I see anything I like." she tucked her phone away, knowing gabi would get that she couldn't overtly talk nighthawk stuff on her personal phone. waiting for the crowd to break up finally, she called the sliver and headed over to the councilman's building.

 

[Halcyon638]

GABI: K. Love you

It was a little past 9:00 when the Sliver arrived at McClaren Heights, the skyscraper and former residence of Councilman Kelleher. It didn’t take long to spot the shattered windows of the 25th story.

Carefully slipping out of the Sliver and onto the balcony (the glass door to which lay in shards below her), Monica made her way into the darkened residence, her eyes quickly adjusting to the low light. The lavish, spacious apartment was draped in police tape.

Her eye was immediately drawn to the immense, dark stain on the forest green sofa that sat perpendicular to the shattered balcony door. The stain ran all the way down to the rug beneath it, and was accompanied by an outline of a body. A similar pool of dried blood and outline were visible about 10 feet from the entrance to the apartment, with a few bloody hand prints on a nearby bookshelf, several knickknacks on their side or smudged with crimson.

Amidst the signs of death, a handful of stuffed animals and action figures strewn about or heaped on a nearby loveseat provided a jarring contrast.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica stored away the information about kids, considering the possibility that this was a high dollar custody case gone completely fucking crazy. Still, she was looking for anything that might link this to something more nefarious. She knew she was unlikely to find anything out in the open, and that the police probably had seized any electronics. that meant looking for something small, a thumb drive or a hidden safe. She took stock of the flooring, and made a circuit to see if any of the walls might be too thick such that they might hide a safe.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica methodically made her way around the apartment. Pictures of Kelleher with his young son and wife Farisa, a radiant, olive-skinned woman with waves of curly dark hair, were mounted on walls and shelves, including the shelf stained with blood. She made her circuit around the living room first, then made her way through the kitchen. It still smelled vaguely of popcorn.

There were three other rooms to the apartment: the bathroom, a master bedroom, a nursery, two offices, and what appeared to be a guest bedroom. The two offices were quite barebones with very little in them. Whether this was because the rooms had recently been remodeled or repurposes, or because they had been combed over by police or someone else was unclear. Each room had smart cameras installed, but Kelleher was no doubt smart enough to switch them off before bringing a young female staffer by at 11:00 at night.

It felt more than a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, only not being quite sure if it was a needle one was looking for. She made a second pass through the living room, but to no avail. For a moment, Monica thought she saw movement, but it was only her reflection in the obnoxiously large smart TV.

It had been at least an hour, and Monica felt a pang of hunger and fatigue. Gabi was probably fussing over her packing now, stressing about how much clothing to wear and secretly sneaking Thadeus A. Bear into—

Monica glanced again at one of the stuffed animals, a stuffed giraffe, which sat on the loveseat near the sofa. There was a strange glint to one of its eyes.

Walking toward it, she noticed it. The giraffe was a nanny cam.