Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[siobhancan99]

Monica shrugged "no, they really don't, but I have a superhuman physiology and endurance. Go ahead and get some sleep." She gestured "I can get you up. It's not a problem." She looked around the area a bit "i might take a look around a little more and see if there's anything worth seeing."

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus nodded. “Alright. But don’t go wandering off too far on me. ‘Don’t split the party,’ remember?” He shook his head. “Nah. I’m good. Plus, don’t want you to catch with me a string of drool hanging off me. Mind handing me the sweatshirt?”

He motioned toward the shirt she’d been wearing earlier to conceal his armor, then slid it on over his form-fitting tee.

 

[siobhancan99]

MOnica wandered the facility. Mostly she was looking for any samples taken from the prisoners, so she could destroy any evidence of the two men's presence. She would leave the samples from Allie, if any existed, in place as they were always going to cop to Allie being here. She did want to discuss with the girl how she got taken here, but with her asleep it was hard for now. At least once they got done with this and called the police and the press she could go back to the hotel and talk to the men there. She sighed as today was fucked for class and she checked her phone, relieved to see she didn't have any tests.

 

[Halcyon638]

It took her more than an hour coming the facility, but eventually, Monica came across a metal, temperature-controlled cabinet filled with samples, all neatly labeled:

A. McKenney

E. Keita

T. O’Neil

There was a sink in an adjoining room and a cabinet containing some harsh cleaning chemicals, which made disposing of the samples from Keita and O’Neil relatively easy.

By the time she returned to the car, it was quarter to 6. Allie was awake again, and Marcus had the hood of the sweatshirt on. “You find what you were looking for?” he asked, letting out a yawn.

 

[siobhancan99]

She nodded "Yeah I needed to destroy any evidence of the other two." She looks over at Allie "listen, say as little about there being others as you can. For their sake, please." She leaned back in the seat, curious. She assumed there'd be information on the computers but maybe not. "How did they take you anyway, Allie? What happened?" She wondered if her parents weren't maybe complicit, or the staff at whatever medical facility the girl had been at.

 

[Halcyon638]

Allie looked away from the side window and turned to Monica. “I don’t know how they found me. They’d finally let me out of the hospital and I was living on my own. Well…my mom and dad were paying for the place, but…I had my own place where I wasn’t hooked up to machines or getting poked and prodded all day and all night.” There was a wistful tone to her voice. “That couldn’t last, right?” she said with a bitter grin. “One night, these guys in black clothes and black masks busted into my house. I think one of them tranqued me. Next thing I know, I’m waking up on a fucking airplane.”

“Fuckers tried to do the same thing to me,” Marcus said.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded "that tracks." She closed her eyes and let herself rest just a moment "I came on them trying to grab him" she gestured at Marcus "which is how I got involved. How long have you been here would you say? and did you talk to anyone besides a doctor? Like, someone who seemed to head the operation up or just this Samantha woman?"

 

[Halcyon638]

“What month is it? September?” Allie said. “Since May.” A squirrel sprinted across the road near where they were parked. “There was this one other doctor guy. Like, three or four times. But mostly her. ‘Doctor Samantha.’ I don’t know if she’s in charge, although she was definitely ordering around the other guy. Older guy. But she…swear to God, it almost seemed like she was doing this just for lulz. Like, she’ll come in and say some shit like, ‘Okay, my darlings, what are we going to learn about you today?’ Total sociopath shit.”

“Sounds like my last dentist,” Marcus quipped.

 

[siobhancan99]

"hmmm that tracks. evil science lady being evil" She nodded. "Well, if she's government this all gets swept under the rug I'm sure, but if she's not she will have a hell of a reckoning." She looked out "hopefully she gets here soon. I want to be done with this place, collect your two friends and be out of here."

 

[Halcyon638]

“And maybe get a proper breakfast,” Marcus added.

They waited in the early morning sunlight. Around 7:15, they spotted a pair of vehicles arriving, a Jeep Grand Cherokee in the lead followed closely behind by a Mercedes. A man was in the former, while a dark-haired woman in sunglasses drove the latter.

Marcus tightened the drawstrings of the hood. “Who’s the bloke?”

“He’s another one of the guards,” Allie noted.

“Alright. Stay down,” he said, starting up the car and pulling toward the road designated for the treatment plant. He drove slowly at first, giving enough distance so as to not attract suspicion. When the two vehicles had stopped in the parking lot, the Brit pumped the gas hard, sending the car peeling out toward them and closing the gap very quickly to the point where the nose of Marcus's vehicle was about 20 feet away from them.

The guard had pulled a handgun and the woman started retreating toward the door of the plant.

 

[siobhancan99]

She looked at the man with the gun and the woman retreating. One lent itself to Marcus more than the other, because they needed the woman alive. She bolted for her, shouting "take the fucker out." She gestured at the man with the gun, but focused on driving hard for Samantha. When she got to her, she'd not try to hurt her but instead to wrap her up in a hold and keep her immobile, so that they could use her and then also turn her over to the police.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica bolted toward the raven-haired woman, drawing the attention of the man with the gun.

“Happily,” Marcus responded to her shout. A glowing orb about the size of a softball appeared in his hand and he thrust his palm out, sending it toward the man. “You even fucking fart in her direction and I will fry your retinas to a crisp.”

The attack struck the man straight in the neck, sending him collapsing to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain.

Monica latched onto the woman. She was tall, lithe, and unassuming, in her early to mid-thirties, her hair tied back in a ponytail, dressed in formal-yet-stylish professional attire.

Marcus summoned another ball of light and made his way past the guard on the ground.

 

[siobhancan99]

"calm down Dr. Caligeri" She says, dropping a classic film reference. Boom.She wrestled the woman a moment, turning her towards Marcus so if she got rambunctious he could fry her. "You're gonna let us into the computers, and answer some questions about what the fuck you're doing to the people you kidnapped, and then you're gonna talk to the cops about it. Or. In the alternative, we can be so so sad that the lab burned down during the rescue with you inside it."

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus plucked the handgun off the ground away from the guard and kicked him in the stomach for good measure, then made his way over to the two women.

Reaching into the 30-something’s purse, he pulled out a wallet and showed Monica an ID. The woman’s name was Samantha Lyons. The Brit pulled out his device and did some searching, and within a few minutes, had pulled up articles about the woman. She’d been a prominent geneticist at a Silicon Valley company called Promise Hill, and had been fired a few years ago for unethical experiments, at one point, facing criminal charges that she’d plea bargained down to 6 months of community service (but not before netting millions when the former startup went public).

Lyons was cooperative, even, Monica suspected, fascinated with her and Marcus as they escorted her into the building.

 

[siobhancan99]

At least she was cooperative. Monica led her in, past the bloodied and tied up security personnel. She wanted to call the cops, but first she had to get into the computers. "Alright, so where's Baerca? and who is in charge of this? is this your idea that you roped Bellweather into? or are you a hired gun?" she sat the woman down at the pc "get into these for me."

What Monica would search for, if the woman did as she was told, was first any information about other targets, then she'd look at what they had on the centuari, then she'd delete everything about the two men they'd rescued. If there were other targets, she'd try to take down as much as she could so she could contact them and warn they were in danger. Of course during this she chatted with the woman, trying to draw her out a bit.

 

[Halcyon638]

“This was entirely my baby,” Lyons said, sounding more than a little proud. “Bellwether is just a means to an end. Spencer Baerga was the gentleman I spoke to about arranging their services. Very, very helpful. Although I’m more than a little miffed at how they held up against you and your friend here. I would love the chance to study you both.”

“I’ll pencil you in in 30 years when your crazy ass gets out of prison,” Marcus responded.

Lyons deleted the data, both on the hard drives and on a linked cloud server, claiming these were the two locations it was stored. After intuiting that the geneticist was holding back on her, Lyons went back in and deleted data from 2 additional cloud servers.

She had a list of targets that consisted of the three she’d captured, Flashpoint, Chromium, Nighthawk, and 3 other individuals. Of the 3, two were not yet identified; there were notes about the recent incident from the summer when Shay had intervened and knocked out a criminal, with speculation about her location. There were similar notes about reported sightings of a superhuman in Los Angeles. The notes about Nighthawk were all gleaned from social media and news reports.

The one target she hadn’t captured but had been positively identified was a 23-year-old man from Washington state named Kelvin Root. From the reports, it sounded as though he had demonstrated enhanced strength and speed. There were no mentions of Centauri in any of Lyons’s notes, though she speculated that some of the genetic abnormalities may have been the result of humans crossbreeding with aliens many generations ago.

 

[siobhancan99]

"aliens huh?" Monica snorted and rolled her eyes "Mars needs women?" She shook her head and made note of Kelvin, so she might track him down and warn him. She was glad there was nobody actually involved from homeland in this mess. That meant they could call the local cops and the media in, without this turning into a shit-show. On that point, she called 911, reporting a kidnapping at the treatment facility. She tied up Lyons "I'll write to you in prison, if you plead guilty." Maybe that would work, maybe it wouldn't. She didn't have much hope Lyons wasn't going to slip out. Still, whoever helped her kidnap Allie was in for a world of pain, no doubt. After making sure everyone was secure, she turned to Allie "obviously my friend here would prefer not to be around when the cops get here. Do you want me to stay? I can stay but he should go back to the hotel. Honestly, you should probably go with the cops after they get here, they can get you in touch with your folks and they can maybe get those other boys home."

 

[Halcyon638]

Allie reached out and grasped Monica’s wrist when the younger woman asked about staying. “Please.”

Marcus nodded. “You ladies need anything before I head out?”

“You don’t have a cigarette, do you?”

“Sorry, love.”

“All good,” she said.

It was a little past 8 when Monica saw a DM come in through one of her personal social media accounts.

ZOE: So, huge weird favor to ask. My roommate quit her job and I’ve barely had the dorm to myself for 10 minutes all week. Is there any chance I might be able to record a video or two in your extra bedroom? I can try to time it so you’re out of the house to make it less sketchy. If it’s too weird I TOTALLY get it and will figure something out.

Marcus called to let Monica know that O’Neil had used Marcus’s phone to contact a friend, who got in touch with O’Neil’s parents. His father was headed straight from DC to get him. The Japanese youth was similarly trying to connect with his brother in the states, who he’d been staying with.

Allie and Monica sat together as the ambulances approached. “Here you are, saving my ass again,” she said, managing a smile. “At least I didn’t try to kill you this time. And you have a hot British sidekick now? When did that happen?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica texted "keep the kid there, if i'm not back before his parents get there. I need to talk with them. It is super fucking important. If not, since he used your phone i'll need the numbers etc"

To Zoe she messaged back "I'm out of town today, i'll be back tonight probably. You'll see it on the news. Yes, but I also have a proposition for you."

Smiling at Allie she put her hand on her arm "you're being really brave, by the way. It can't be easy going through what you're going through. I knew you weren't you know, bad. I'm glad I was able to get you some help. I'm sorry that this happened to you, again." She let go of her arm "As for him, well." She laughs "He's a villain that I'm trying to reform. It has nothing to do with the fact that he's super fucking hot." She pulled a knee up under her chin. "It's lonely. Being me." She looked over at Allie "I'm sure you know something about that. About being different, about not being able to tell anyone, or talk to someone who understands. He helped me rescue a girl once and now I can't give up on him. It is as much for me as it is for him, you know?" She leaned back against the brick wall "He is pretty fucking fine, and the accent... whew." She fanned herself exaggeratedly. "I can just imagine him calling me some terrible names with his hand in my hair, pushing my face into the pillow, you know?"

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus sent a reply. “Your wish my command etc.”

Allie let out a chuckle. “I don’t know if I’m brave. Just…numb? Like, something insanely crazy happens, I’m just like, ‘okay, we’re doing this, I guess.’”

She brushed back a lock of her dark hair. “Well…I’m not on social media or anything because of all the triggering potential, but you ever want to talk to someone fluent in weird…” She extended her hand toward Monica’s burner phone and punched in her number, saving it under “Allie Monster Girl.”

The 30-something laughed at Monica’s admission regarding Marcus. “One thousand percent. I support this.”

She gave Monica a hug as the ambulances pulled into the parking lot. “Thank you. Again. So…I don’t know your situation, but if you ever, like, need a favor or some money or anything…my parents are kinda disgustingly rich and my mom’s a lawyer. If your, uh…sidekick has any legal problems…just say the word.”

Paramedics made their way over to where Monica and Allie were waiting.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica waited while the medics and police took Allie in tow. She also took a few pictures of it happening so Allie couldn't be disappeared in case the doctor was lying about lack of government involvement. Once she had a good feeling the older woman was in good hands, she called Marcus for a pickup. When she met him on the road outside, she sank wearily into the seat "I need to sleep. do you want to stay here or do you want to return the rental and take some trains home?"

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus started up the vehicle. “I’ll drive us back.” He’d snagged a Coke bottle from somewhere. “You can sleep on the road and then get your pod thingy to pick you up from my place, yeah?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"We have to go to the hotel first. I need to talk to the one." She closed her eyes "Fuck im tired" she laughed and looked over at him "But I need to talk to O'Neil for sure." She rolled her shoulders, tired of being in the armor "and we need to stop somewhere and get me some fucking clothes."

 

[Halcyon638]

Marcus nodded, a hazy look on his face. “Right. I forgot. From here on out, you tell me what to do and I’ll do it. My brain is fucked.”

He pulled out of the parking lot. “Now you’re going to make me take you clothes shopping? That is some tenth, eleventh date shit.”

They made their way toward the hotel.

 

[siobhancan99]

"at walmart. I just need sweats. Im gross inside this armor." She walked into the hotel and took O'Neil aside. She said low <Do you understand me right now?> and looked at him. If he didn't seem to understand her or show any signs he could speak the language, she'd ask in English if he was adopted. If he did understand her she'd follow up with <How were you caught?>