Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

“If you hear me say ‘golden,’ shut your eyes,” Marcus responded. The 4 figures had stopped moving.

“Take them out,” the presumed leader of the squad said in a cool, confident tone.

 

[siobhancan99]

That was all she needed to hear. She slipped out of cover, lashing out with the chain and trying to smash it against one of the men with the assault rifles, hopefully entangling him somewhat, before ducking back behind the cover of the nearby machinery.

 

[Halcyon638]

The heavy head of the chain smashed into one man’s neck, sending him clattering to the metal grating of the floor. As Monica retreated back behind some of the machinery, another man opened fire on her. The bullets bounced off the cover.

“Golden!” Marcus called out. A minute later as she closed her eyes, she heard the remaining men moaning in discomfort or cursing him out.

One of the men fired off a series of shots. “Fucking idiot!” another one said. “Hold your fire.” Monica could see them blinking and trying to will their eyes to adjust to the lighting as Marcus summoned another bolt of light.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica ran out, keeping to one side and continuing to use the superior reach of the chain. She didn't want to make Marcus miss trying to aim around her. From the periphery she lashed out with the chain again, attempting to take out one of the henchmen. She also resolved to grab one of their guns when this was all said and done. While not her style, she did need something that would let her fight at range. Though she could throw a man the length of a football field... so maybe she should use rocks or something to keep her image clean. All things she could resolve after she grabbed a gun, which itself had to come after all three men were taken out.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica’s chain snaked out again, wrapping around one man’s leg and pulling him hard against a nearby pipe, knocking him out and sending his weapon tumbling to the floor. The remaining two men, still apparently blinded, starting making their way out toward the front entrance through which they’d entered.

“Fuck yeah!” Marcus taunted them, firing off a beam of pure light. The attack just missed one of the men’s shoulders as he rounded a corner to safety.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica charged them as she was sure they'd recover their sight and be a problem after, or call for backup and be a real problem after. When she reached them, she'd lash out with the chain again, trying to take one out. She could decide whether or not to leave one conscious when they'd cut the odds down. "we can celebrate in a minute" she called out to Marcus as she attacked again.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica sprinted, her enhanced speed easily giving her the advantage over the stumbling men. She managed to loop the chain around one of their necks, pulling the gunman in for an elbow smash and immediately laying him out.

The other man cried out as a beam of light struck him in the knee area. He fell to the ground, clutching his wounded leg, as Marcus made his way over.

 

[siobhancan99]

Picking the guy up she held him against the wall "In a moment, you'll have the chance to decide whether you leave here in an ambulance or a hearse." she held him against the brick "it won't feel like that, but it is that. So, how we do we get into the basement? do you have a key card? is there a key? do you have to be buzzed in? what's the method?" She wasn't going to sugarcoat it with a guy that came at her with some kind of assault rifle. "be quick now. i have very little patience at the moment."

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus stood near her, a glowing ball of light hovering in his hand again. “We don’t…have the code. You would…have to be buzzed in…by someone from the inside.”

“They’ve got comms,” Marcus observed, tapping his own ear to indicate the earpieces the men were wearing. “You talking to the fuckers on the inside?”

The man winced and nodded.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica picked up one of the assault rifles "tell them we're bringing you inside for medical attention and to buzz the door open." She looked over at Marcus "Look if they want to shoot us, they'd shoot us after we kick the door in, so." she shrugged "might as well not kill this guy. Plus we can hold him in front of you in case they do start shooting. Or use him as a battering ram if they don't open the door." The last part she was sort of kidding about. "Let them know we're coming and if they shoot you're going to be in front." she moved to pick the guy up, holding him out in front of her.

 

[Halcyon638]

The man hesitated as Marcus also picked up an assault rifle, then changed his mind as he angled the barrel at him. “Green, they’ve taken out the squad and are holding us hostage. They’re demanding that you open the door. No guns. I’ll be up front.”

The Brit reached over and snatched the comms unit out of his ear. “Also, just a friendly reminder that we just took down your squad of paramilitary LARPers in a little less time than it would take my very angry, very strong vigilante friend over here to rip that fucking door off its hinges. And trust me, she’ll do it, but she’s going to work up a sweat and it’s only going to make her more pissed off once we roll in there and find you sorry tits pissing your trousers in anticipation of the absolute ass-kicking you are about to experience. So why don’t you do yourselves a favor and open that door, and maybe I can convince my friend to just hand you over to the police without a single compound fracture?”

Within a minute, they heard the sound of the reinforced door opening. A pair of men in security uniforms, their hands in the air, emerged from the passageway.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica leaned over to Marcus "if this is really homeland security its the z squad. It's so off book it's on clay tablets written in cuneiform." She wondered whether this was some kind of hackneyed private industry project, or if this was the brainchild of someone in DHS that didnt have permission and had moved funds around to make it happen. It had that kind of feel for sure. a 'better to ask forgiveness than permission' sort of vibe. "Turn around, put your wrists behind your back. My associate here will zip tie you" she handed Marcus her omnipresent zip ties "He's doing wrists first, then you kneel, put your forehead against the wall and he does your ankles. Anyone gets notions... well. I would very much appreciate it if you didn't get notions." She looked over to Marcus "Because my friend here thinks I'm a basic bitch from the suburbs who hasn't ever killed anyone and enjoys pumpkin spice lattes and Chappell Roan and I'd like to keep that impression going really."

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus smirked at her last comment, then set about restraining them. “Into the creepy underground science dungeon, yeah?” he said, peering into the dimly lit hallway ahead. They made their way into the tunnels. “Just letting you know, if I see any freaky fetuses floating in bloody jars, I’m getting the fuck out.”

The subterranean structure wasn’t sprawling, but it was impressive enough in its seeming technological sophistication. There were what appeared to be a few laboratories, an infirmary, a kitchen, and a security room. All of the computers were password protected and locked.

On the monitors, they spotted three people in what appeared to be holding cells. It took Monica a moment to recognize one of them: Allie McKenney, the person who had first been affected by the Swat-related transformation. The 30-something had her hands on the bars and was staring out as if to try to get some sense of what had happened.

The other two prisoners looked unfamiliar. One was a tall, athletic guy in his early twenties with sandy brown hair and a jawline and symmetrical features that suggested potential Centauri. The other was a slender twenty-something male of Asian descent with mid-length dark hair, curled into a fetal position on his bed.

“Mates of yours?” Marcus inquired.

 

[siobhancan99]

"This is fucking insane." She looked over the trio "you have three people down there, one of whom I know to be incredibly dangerous. They're guarded by like, 10 dollar an hour rent-a-cops in a million dollar facility. This. This feels like a trap.I don't know though. Allie." She gestured at the woman on the screen "Is only dangerous when she's a crazy vampire lady. She's the original victim of that tainted SWAT drug. She's bigger and badder when she's all you know. In her monster guise. But she's a nice girl when she's not. So maybe they just keep her sedated? Or maybe the bars and whatnot are stronger than they look. Or, maybe there's a super powerful person like us that's lurking around the corner waiting for our dumb asses to come down there like the fucking cavalry. So. I don't know."

She was plagued with uncertainty. Was the Centauri maybe low caste like her dad? stronger than a human, not as strong as required to get himself out? Was there a trap on the bars? She looked around, trying to ascertain if there were some way to communicate with the people in the cells. There probably was, so she looked in earnest.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Shit,” Marcus said. “Maybe they were trying to add me to their little supermutant zoo.” A look of concern crossed his face. “Someone tougher than you?” he said to her speculation about who might be down there waiting for them. “Look, we already found the place, and got a shit ton of firepower shoved in our faces for our troubles. Why don’t we just call in the authorities? Let them settle it?”

Monica noticed there were external microphones at some of the monitors seemingly to communicate with the prisoners.

 

[siobhancan99]

"do you want the authorities knowing about you? do they" she gestured at the captives "That's not a choice for us to make. Do me a favor. Go out and ask the dollar store blackwater guys where these people's personal effects are." she started opening up the computers, taking the hard drives out and saving them for later. She would figure out how to get past the passwords. Or not. at least whoever was behind this wouldn't have access to the information any more. Unless it was in the cloud, but the cloud passwords might be stored on the hard drives. She had to try at least. Once she had them all stacked up she flipped on the comminication channel for Allie "Allie. This is The Nighthawk. Do you remember me? I'm going to try to get you out of here but I need your help."

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus sighed. “Okay. I’ll go talk to them.” He headed out of the security room, closing the door behind him.

“Nighthawk?” Allie called out, hands gripping the bars tightly. “Oh my god. Please. Please help us!”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica spoke again "that's the plan. I need to know why none of you have tried to escape? is there like a trap or something? is there some sort of other individual with powers down there? or is it just the bars are too thick to get out?" It could be as simple as that. But she had to be sure that there wasn't some kind of Thanos or whatever down there. "Is anyone in your part of the building? or just you three?"

 

[Halcyon638]

“The guards,” Allie replied, pressing her forearm horizontally across the bars above her head, then pressing her forehead into her arm. “There’s usually, like, six to seven of them. And then they…these keeps us all drugged up.”

She opened her eyes and looked up at the camera, her 30-something face looking much older due to her accumulated history of drug use. “I think…I think there were just a couple of guards on tonight. Usually is this late. I’m not…I’m not sure.”

Marcus returned. “Guards said they didn’t keep any of their shit. Making it harder for them to get identified, he said. Real fucking nice.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica sighed "here's my issue. There's no way any of these prisoners know anybody's phone number or anything to get in touch with them. I mean do you know anyone's phone number? maybe an email. maybe. And with no ID and everything..." She rubbed her temples "at least there's no guards." She looked around for cell controls to see if they were in this room, and if not she'd head down to the cell area with Marcus. "So we might have to involve the press just so people see their fucking kid is on the news." S he thought for a minute "also, might be we beat those guards a bit till one of them confesses he sold the phones, because they probably did. eh. lets see what we can see."

 

[Halcyon638]

A look of concern crossed Marcus’s face. “Alright. But if we get the press involved, I’ll have to fuck off into the night. Can’t be drawing that kind of heat on me.”

He looked over at the cardboard box Monica had dumped all the hard drives in. He pressed the button on the comms system linked to Allie’s cell. “Hey. This is Nighthawk’s friend. Are there doctors or scientists or whatever studying you?”

Allie looked skeptical for a moment, settling back down onto her bed. “Yes. There’s one—she’s the main one. Her name is Samantha.”

“Does she come every day?”

“Most days.”

“What time does Samantha usually get here?”

“Early. We usually see her around 7:30, 8.”

Marcus shut off the comms device. “We could stash the guards somewhere and wait in the car for this Samantha bird to show up. Make her access the hard drives and all that shit. Unless you’ve got plans.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica felt an upswell of uncomfortable emotion. She inhaled, trying to get ahold of herself. It came hard and heavy, and it hit her like a truck. "I." She inhaled and exhaled, getting ahold of herself. "I think that's a great idea." She started hooking the drives back up, "bring the mooks in. Might be that the Doctor also kept the personal effects. Could be someone here was smart enough to figure out that the phones and stuff might lead to more supers. So she's a good one to question." She leaned against the wall "I. I don't want to get weird here but. I've... I've been doing this for so fucking long on my own. Having to stumble around blind. I've made a lot of mistakes. I haven't caught everything I should have caught, so... when you made that suggestion. Like. Fuck." She shook her head "It felt more like I wasn't screaming into the void than at any point. Like ... I had real help. So thank you."

She headed down then to let the prisoners out "So. We'd like to catch the woman that did this to you, Sam, and maybe some other executives, but that means not calling the cops right away. Also." she shifted a little and looked the trio over "do you want to be here if we call the cops? On the one hand it will be easier for them to get you home. On the other they'd know you were special. So. Lets take the time before the morning shift arrives for people to figure out what they want to do." Walking a little closer to the guy that might be Centauri, she leaned in and said "Hello" in Centauri, to try to get his reaction.

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus listened. His eyes eventually drifted to the monitors again as her disclosure got a bit more personal. “Yeah. It’s…all good,” he said hesitantly. “There’s a, uh, reason you don’t really do heists on your own.” Turning toward her, he added, “Besides. If my plan turns out to be shit, you have someone else to blame for once.”

Allie practically leapt out of her cell, throwing her arms around Monica. The well-built, sandy-haired guy slowly rose from his bed as if he couldn’t coordinate his arms and legs, nearly stumbling over until Marcus caught up. “Whoa. I got you, mate.”

The slender young man of apparent Asian descent also rose slowly, but once up, seemed relatively alert.

“Whatever you do, my parents are going to have every fucking lawyer in Prospect City coming down on these assholes,” Allie said, invoking the vast resources at her wealthy parents’ disposal. “For all of us,” she said, looking at the others.

The suspected Centauri man, who looked to be about Monica’s age, looked at her strangely, but didn’t reply.

“I do not want anyone to know of, uh…why I was taken,” the thin 20-something said in what sounded like a Japanese accent. “I want to go back home. To Japan.”

The suspected Centauri man nodded. “Yeah. Same.”

“And where do you live?” Marcus asked.

“D.C..”

Marcus sighed and looked over at Monica, then back at the group. “Well, looks like getting you all an Uber is fucked. We need to get you the fuck out of here.” He checked the burner phone he’d acquired to replace his main phone and pulled Monica aside. “It’s almost 3 in the bloody morning. What do you think about stashing them in a motel for a few hours while we case this place waiting for the doctor?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica gritted her teeth. Why was it never fucking easy with other Centauri? She had to talk to this guy and she needed him to be candid. She nodded at the Japanese guy then looked over to Allie "If you want to be public about it, then its best you be here when we call the cops. We can stash the other two, then maybe your parents can help get them home." That seemed like the best plan. "Alright lets get them smuggled away somewhere, and we can figure it out from there." If they had gone to fucking Japan for this guy, that was an issue. It meant deep pockets and worldwide connections. Maybe real government involvement. At least the real government could be embarrassed out of involvement. probably.

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus packed the three of them into his vehicle, then drove them to the nearest motel. He gave Allie cash to rent a room so they could stash the Japanese man and the suspected Centauri, then waited for McKenney to return before driving back to the faux-water treatment plan.

The clock read 4:09 by the time they arrived. By 4:30, they could see Allie slumped in the backseat, asleep. “Sounds like we got a few hours before this doc arrives.” Glancing back, he said, “She’s got the right idea. Why don’t you try to get a little rest? I’ll wake you when the shit’s about to hit the fan. Last time I checked, they don’t call you Morninghawk.”