Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

“Wow. That would be going to an insane amount of trouble to cover up his tracks,” Gabi observed, “but then…killing people with drones isn’t exactly sane.”

She went back into the kitchen and returned a minute later, pressing a half-opened protein bar into Monica’s hand. “I don’t usually have to remind you to eat,” she said with a grin, stroking Monica’s hair before curling up beside her with a table to do her own sleuthing alongside her lover.

They combed through the friend group’s social media feeds again, but found no further appearances by McCoy.

 

[siobhancan99]

"you also brought me a muffin. are you saying i'm too thin?" she laughed and ate the protein bar, then started on the muffin. "This is all fucking weird, man." She kissed Gabi's temple "but it's going to have to wait for after class. I need to drop by that law firm too in my you know, official guise. Gotta get the ball rolling on controlling my likeness rights and merch." She sighed and shifted "So uh. Zoe." She ran her hand along Gabi's side "I'm not saying it's totally up to you, but if it were totally up to you, how would you want things to be?"

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi grinned at the "thin" remark. “No. I just know how you can get when you’re focused on something. It’s pretty hot.”

The raven-haired girl looked surprised when Monica mentioned Zoe. “Zoe?” She started removing the tie securing her ponytail in place. “Did she text you or something? She’d texted something about being nervous to find out about schools and scholarships. She got into NYU but apparently didn’t get offered enough money.”

When Monica asked about her, Gabi looked thoughtful. “Um. Well…I thought we’d decided that was like, a fun, one-time—er, two-time—thing. Not a, like…throuple or whatever. But I guess—we should probably have a plan in place in case she gets in here and is going to be living here.”

Gabi leaned over and put a hand on Monica’s shoulder. “Honestly…Zoe’s adorable and sweet and smart and all of that, but I’m never going to feel the way I feel about you about her, and she really deserves that. She deserves someone who’s going to love her and make her feel like she’s the only person in the world, you know? And you guys already have a pretty strong connection…I think it’d get even harder to like, untangle the whole friendship-sex-love thing if it happened again.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica let out a breath, relieved. "She did text me. and honestly she doesn't do it for me. I have a type, and that type is apparently... people with their shit together. She seems kinda like she doesn't and I don't think I can get past that which sounds awful out loud but fuck. So you two seemed pretty uh. connected. over the past few months so I kind of thought you might actually want to be in some kind of polycule or something with her and I was going to take one for the team and you know. let you." She laughed and closed her eyes "so. Yeah. Good we're on the same page with Zoe not being uh, permanent."

 

[Halcyon638]

“I mean…she had one rough semester mental health-wise and she still ended up with all A’s. Seems kinda harsh,” Gabi said, her tone more than a little defensive. Her expression softened a bit. “Sweetie…and I know this is going to sound weird based on the three of us hooking up…but Zoe and are just friends. We got a little closer these last few months because she happens to be online sometimes when you’re on patrol when I’m just…needing to take my mind off things. Nothing, like…sexual, but I’ll just catch her when she’s streaming or we’ll hit each other up on Discord. We might get a little flirty every once in a while but that didn’t start up until after the three of us got together and there’s no sexting or anything. Nothing that I wouldn’t send in our group thread.”

She brushed a lock of Monica’s hair. “You’re the only one I need, querida.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica let the rebuke sit without further comment, knowing that she was right and it needn't go any farther. She wrapped an arm around Gabi "Okay babe." She sucked on her lower lip, then cupped her butt. "I have a bit of a busy day then I need to go try and find this First Line guy and see what possible reason he could have for any of this shit." So basically, class, law firm, then back to the grind. Honestly, she loved chasing this mystery. Part of her hoped her image rights would amount to enough for her to not have to have a real job, but science was a fun mystery too. The allure of getting to beat someone up after the answer just happened to be a little more compelling. "I'll come home first though and make dinner. What do you want to eat tonight?" she knew if she left it to Gabi it'd be takeout. "Anything you want."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi teased Monica’s tongue with her own, then stroked her right ear. “Hmm. I would kill for a gyro. But don’t work too hard today, carino. You were up late last night.”

The two girls walked to their Calculus II tomorrow. It was a mild mid-April day and there wasn’t a cloud in sight, a stark contrast from much of their New York trip. Much of the campus had broken out warmer weather clothing already, as if waiting for the first excuse to bare more skin.

Monica’s day ended as usual at 2:50, when she wrapped up her Fundamentals of Electrical & Computer Engineering course. If anything, the air had gotten warmer.

 

[siobhancan99]

"baby i cant cook gyros we dont have a lamb spit thing" she laughed and swatted Gabi's ass, then went off to class. "Maybe some shrimp skewers or something."

At 2:50 she made her way into a bad part of town, swapped into her gear, then took the sliver very publicly towards the white-shoe law firm she had scoped out. She walked into the building, ready to discuss business...

 

[Halcyon638]

“Not gyros! Ugh, I need more caffeine in me. You made some other yummy Greek or like Mediterranean thing once,” she said, cheeks flushing. “Shrimp sounds tasty, mi querida.”

Later that day, Monica left the firm of Derrickson, Oakes, & Singer, having managed to secure her image rights. Gabi had an evening meeting with the Latino Students Association and arrived home a little after 6:30.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica did go greek, with some lamb chops and a feta salad with olives and mixed greens. "so. I got the ball rolling on controlling my image and stuff. We're gonna set it up so half the money goes to women's shelters and whatnot, to give people a reason to buy official merch. it's like, gonna take a bit to get it up and running." She chattered a bit about the surprised look on everyone's face, and how she had to lift a conference table bbefore anyone at the firm believed it was her, but that the meetings seemed to go alright. "Probably wont be any money till this summer they said, but that's fine. It's not like we're starving."

She and Gabi ate, and after a little studying and a long snuggle, she got her shit together and headed out to check out the abode of this first line exec. "what's your deal, Mr. McCoy" she wondered as she headed for the suburbs.

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi smiled and threw her arms excitedly around Monica. “That’s awesome! I’m so proud of you, carino. I’ve got the book smarts but I don’t know anything about money stuff, so I’mma let you handle all of that. You know. Take my money and turn it into more money,” she said, feigning a “make it rain” gesture and letting out a laugh.

Gabi thanked her profusely for the dinner and let her go on her way with only a few exhortations to be careful.

Devin McCoy’s home was a moderately-sized two-story home on a large plot of land separated from its distant neighbors by shrubbery and natural tree lines. The house was a modern design with a 2-car garage, an in-ground swimming pool, and a storage shed. There were a few lights on upstairs, one in a front-facing window, the other in an upstairs window on the right-hand side of the building. A pair of garbage cans on wheels sat near the curb.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica hmmmed. Two car garage. Two lights in the house. Potentially two occupants. McCoy was a middle aged man, so walking around fighting the existence of lights being on that didn't need to be on was probably second nature to him.She assumed he wouldn't have his drone shit in the shed, which was probably for pool shit, but she would head over and check it out anyway on the off chance that it was full of drone equipment. Might as well check it off the list.

 

[Halcyon638]

Entering the small shed, Monica found it to be mostly empty. There was a mostly full container of chlorine tablets caked in dust, a few camp chairs, and what looked to be a new rake. An empty, dust-caked can of Mountain Dew was crumpled in one corner beside a pair of Darth Vader-emblazoned flip-flops.

From the door of the shed, she could make out the sizeable back deck and sliding glass door of the house. She also spotted what was likely a security camera above the glass door.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica considered the serious need for an invisibility cloak. She had an almost totally ingrained internal prohibition too against breaking into houses. You can take the girl out of the suburbs and all that. "I never imagined there'd be so much politely knocking on doors in vigilante work" she mused.

Heading around to the front door, she knocked and rang the doorbell, crossing her arms and waiting to see if anyone came to the door. She felt extraordinarily stupid, but the last thing she needed was footage of her busting into some innocent middle class guy's house.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica heard a low rumble about ten yards to her right. One of the two garage doors of the house was starting to ascend, and she heard another sound accompanying it: the distinct sound of rotors furiously spinning. A first drone poked its nose out of the structure, then a second. From the sounds of it, it was possible more were on the way.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica felt a rush of vindication. She was not only in the right place, she was about to be fully justified in smashing her way into the house and beating McCoy. He probably wouldn't shoot up his own house and he definitely wasn't going to shoot anything in his own direction, so she lifted a foot and kicked as hard as she could, attempting to smash the door inward so she could enter the house.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica’s first kick caused part of the door frame to crack and she could hear the deadbolt digging into the wood, but it still held up. She saw a total of 4 drones exiting the garage, 3 of them heading her way and the other flying off over the garage. Another kick broke the door down and she was shortly inside the household, the machines coming up from behind.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica looked around, then decided to bolt for the upstairs. Her best defense was to get close to McCoy. He couldn't shoot her if there was a serious risk of shooting himself. That had to be a priority. She bounded up the steps easily, making the landing. She could hear the drones closing in, she had only a moment to decide which direction to go, and she moved towards the part of the house over the garage. She hoped she picked correctly or she'd be trapped in the house with murderous drones. She reflected, momentarily, on the irony of being killed by robots when she and Tom had wanted to go into robotics. Sort of a he-who-lives-by-the-sword sort of deal. The absurdity of it wasn't nearly as funny though, here in the moment where she stood a chance of being filled full of lead.

 

[Halcyon638]

A hallway upstairs branched off to the left and the right, and it was the right fork that took her toward the portion of the house over the garage. She heard the insect-like buzzing of the drones as she threw open the three doors on that side of the hallway. One was a bathroom, another was a nearly empty closet, and the third was a what appeared to be the master bedroom. It was strewn with dirty clothing and opened Amazon boxes and smelled of unwashed laundry. Replicas of starships and other geek culture vehicles sat on every nook and cranny.

Monica was now pinned in the hallway, the drones having flown to the top of the stairs, though only one pass down at a time.

She heard a voice sound over the whir of the motors. It was a male-sounding voice, modulated by some technology within the drone. “You shouldn’t get involved with this.”

The vehicle launched an electric charge Monica’s way. She attempted to leap over it but the bolt tased her left foot, sending a painful jolt through her entire leg and making her land awkwardly.

 

[siobhancan99]

"McCoy you fucking dumbass. I came here to talk. If this is about vengeance I was considering letting it be. Now I at least have to punch you in the fucking face. turn your fucking toys off before you make me mad." She was mad though. And a little scared, truth be told. She ducked into the bedroom, moving along the wall a bit so a drone would have to come through the door to get at her, then waited for one to come in so she could snare it with the chain. Hopefully though, McCoy took her offer to talk at her word.

 

[Halcyon638]

“There are 3 machine guns between you and me, and I’d like to keep it that way,” Monica heard the voice say. Unless it was the voice modulator, his voice was calm, almost affectless. The shadow of the drone filled the bedroom doorway.

It didn’t pass the threshold. “I’m listening. I don’t want to shoot you if I don’t have to, but I'm prepared to.”

 

[siobhancan99]

MOnica took a moment, trying to get herself back together after the tase. She closed her eyes "Look. I have a pretty good idea as to why someone would want those people dead. The part of the puzzle that I'm missing is why you would want them dead. 10 years older. Can't find any connection except some pictures of you with the victims at a party thrown by Linda Zhang. Help me understand and maybe I can walk away from this. Or at least negotiate some parameters for you to work in that involve less collateral damage."

If the man had a legitimate reason to care about Coda then who was she to stand in the way of his vengeance? Wasn't she on the same warpath?

"So why is it you're doing this? What do you get out of it?"

 

[Halcyon638]

There was a moment of silence. Then, the voice came through on the drone’s speakers again. “I didn’t know Coda Kirkman. But I’m doing this for love. Someone told me what they did. Someone…I love. It was wrong.” Throughout, the tone was uniformly flat.

The drones continued to hover at the threshold, the whir of their rotors making a nearby window blind sway ever so slightly. “It’s almost over. Just two—three—more. I don’t want to kill you.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"Someone you love? McCoy, just because the word coy is in your fucking name doesn't mean you have to be. For fuck's sake, buddy. There's two ways we go here. You convince me to fuck off because this is a noble quest or you don't. My husband knows I'm here. So when I disappear, the cops WILL come at you. So... better get to actually fucking talking. Being cryptic is not interesting. I know people think it is, but it isn't. It's super not interesting."

 

[Halcyon638]

“I’m not going to tell you who she is. I wouldn’t do that to her.” The drone began to poke its nose past the threshold. “You haven’t left me much choice, and I didn’t really trust you that much to begin with.” The machine’s stun gun mount began to crackle and spark.