Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

Within seconds of exiting the Sliver and moving toward the SUV, Monica found herself drenched. After slashing the tires, she found the barn door locked. Using her lockpicking gun, she opened it easily and began a careful sweep of the space.

Nothing.

Next, she slunk to the shed. It appeared mostly empty aside from a riding mower, a small combination CD player/radio boombox, and a bicycle. Beneath a shelf on the wall, she found a trio of withered, once-red roses.

A sweep of the place revealed that there was something under the mower. Using her incredible strength, she pushed it aside silently.

There was a wooden hatch below. Opening it, she could see a wooden staircase leading down into what appeared to be a cellar of some kind. It smelled faintly of urine. She couldn’t make out any sounds, though it was possible that the rain was drowning them out.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica dropped into the space. If it smelled like piss there was either a dog or a woman in here. Hopefully two. She held out hope Paige Howe's lack of body meant she was alive. It could, however, mean that she was just buried on the farm. She took out her phone and turned the light on on it, moving it around. She called out softly "hey. Is anyone down here?" hoping beyond hope to hear from someone... anyone.. that wasn't Mateo Leonard.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Hello?” she heard an unfamiliar female voice call out, weakly. As Monica proceeded down the stairs, the smell grew stronger. “Hello?”

The cellar what amounted to two cells made of chain-link fencing, each with a padlocked metal entrance. “Who are you?” a thin, bleary-eyed woman with long, wheat-colored hair in a dirty white dress demanded to know, hands grasping onto the fencing. It was Ines Rivera, the woman who had gone missing back in March.

Across from her in the other cell, lying with half of her body sprawling off a thin, stained mattress, was a dark-haired woman facing the wall. As Ines made noise, she slowly turned over. It was Hadley, eyes glassy and a string of drool hanging from her lips.

 

[siobhancan99]

"I'm a friend of her father's" she gestured at Hadley "I don't think she can walk in that state. Can you?" She moved to use the gun on the padlock "Are there any others? Does he have any at the house?" She fiddled with the locks, then looked over to Hadley "Come on Ms. Knapp, we have to get you out of here."

She gestured, hoping they'd come out on their own but was ready to head in and carry Hadley out.

 

[Halcyon638]

“You have to get me out of here,” Ines said, tears beginning to stream down her eyes. “He’s…he’s fucking crazy! Please...he’s going to…I can walk. She’s…she’s new. I thought I was the only one but…I don’t fucking know. He never lets me in the house. Never lets me…”” Monica opened the lock to both of their cells.

Hadley barely stirred, so Monica had to carry her friend out, the sour scent of urine clinging to her. Leading the way, Monica emerged with Hadley, with Ines following close behind. The shed itself was still empty.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica laid Hadley down by the sliver, then called 911 on her burner and handed the phone to Ines. "Stay on with them. You're safe. Just get them to come here. I'm going into the house and I'm going to see if there are any others. What is the guy like?" She describes Mateo "or is he older?" thinking about the story Mateo wrote, and the fact they were on his father's ground.

 

[Halcyon638]

The rain was letting up a bit now, though it was still a steady drizzle. “I think you should probably not move,” Monica heard Mateo Leonard say as, he stepped out from behind the Sliver, shotgun aimed at her from about 10 feet away. He had an impassive look on his face that slowly shifted into a wry smile. “This is a pretty ship you have here. I wouldn’t mind taking her for a spin after. How about it?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"you think you're the first man to point a gun at me, Pendejo?" She stepped a little closer, trying to put on a brave face but also to keep herself between Mateo and the less bullet-resistant "You think you're the first man to overcompensate for his lack of cajones with a gun?"

She had to keep him focused on her. If he realized he could use the others as leverage she was kinda fucked. She stepped in again "the cops are already on their way here. What kind of fucking idiot kidnaps a cop's kid? They will shoot you where you stand. There's no way you leave this property alive if they get here and you have a gun in your hand. Now... and here's the thing..." she swallowed, hoping to keep him still focused on her "you can still control the narrative here. You can still write how some of this turns out. you can, for instance... if you surrender and confess... convince the police that your father had nothing to do with this. That he's just an old man and he didn't know what was going on. You shoot anyone and well... just to spite you they will charge him. So... how do you want this to happen?"

 

[Halcyon638]

“These are the same cops who locked up the first one’s boyfriend and apparently need a girl in a ninja costume to do their detective work,” the professor said, a slight smirk on his face. “My father’s quite unwell. To be honest, he wouldn’t know the difference if he were put in prison or if he stays here. Speaking of confessing,” he added, gun still aimed at Monica. “What, exactly, are you overcompensating for? Did the system fail you? Did some bad man hurt you? I am still going to have to shoot you, but I hope we have time enough to get to know one another at least a little.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica stooped a bit to put Hadley in the ground, as she didn't want the girl to be shot "Oh, you know the drill. Superpowers. tragic backstory. A serious internal locus of control which makes me feel like I can change the world. I'm also tragically ugly so the mask is really more about not hearing negative comments on social media than it is to hide my identity. Don't let the comic books fool you. Great power does not come with the face of Gal Gadot. And no it is a different set of cops. Did you like... seriously not know that the cop who catches all my cases is this girl's father? I mean. There's this thing. It is an interconnected network of computers that covers the whole earth and contains information."

Monica stepped over Hadley "So if you're not tied up and waiting for him well. He's not the kind of guy that would kill you. He'd probably shoot you in the back as you were running, coincidentally hitting you in the base of the spine and paralyzing you from the waist down. Never mind the powder burns being on your shirt and indicating you were shot at point blank range. You can't fly the ship, and you don't have any tires. Also, he already knows your name and your address. Plus I called 911 and the phone is like... picking up all this. I hope. but at any rate the locals will be coming to check out the 911 call too." She inhaled "tell you what, why don't you and I go down to the house, and we can shoot the shit till they get here? save everyone all the sturm und drang."

 

[Halcyon638]

“To tell you the truth, I find the killing to be the most tedious part,” Mateo said. “I’m half tempted to take you up on your offer, Miss. But the other half of me is a little put off by your bravado. It’s not a very attractive quality in a woman, I’m afraid.” Leonard prepared to fire on Monica. She knew she had to react quickly.

 

[siobhancan99]

"Fuck you, jerk" comes the terse reply "what is it, 1960?"

She storms forward, concerned about being shot, but not overly concerned. She had to trust the armor at some point. Might as well be now. Plus if he had shot in the thing instead of a slug that should help. She thinks. Maybe. 'Time to find out' she thinks to herself as she bursts forward, looking to wrest the gun from his hands and neutralize the threat without hurting him.

 

[Halcyon638]

The gun discharged with a loud boom just as Monica closed the gap between them. Her foot shifted a bit in the wet mud and she slid forward a bit while trying to grasp the gun, only enabling her to get one hand on it. Still, it was more than enough to wrest the firearm from the deranged middle-aged man.

Leonard attempted to get his large hands around her neck and nearly succeeded, until at the last moment, she jerked her head backward, evading his grasp. At the same moment, Ines Rivera shouted a guttural “Fuck you!”, attempting to grab hold of one of his arms. He flailed backwards, brushing her away.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica gripped the gun like a bat "what part of super powers..." She swung with all her might, like she was going for the fences. "Did you not understand" She was aiming for center mass, trying to not hit him in the head as she wanted him conscious but... sternly rebuked.

 

[Halcyon638]

The firearm smashed hard just below Leonard’s ribcage. He toppled backward, his slightly overweight body sinking into the mud. “You fucker!” Ines shouted, kicking him hard, repeatedly, before breaking down in sobs and falling to her knees a few feet away. Hadley still lay on her side, slowly shifting her head to take in what was happening.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica racks the shotgun "So. Mateo. Lets have a chat. Now that you know that the confidence I express isn't bravado, but is in fact the natural result of just..." She walked over, aiming the gun at his crotch "me being good at what I do..." She swallowed "We're gonna go down the house and see if anyone is down there. and you're going to tell me what you did with Paige Howe."

She hoped she'd find Paige down there. It was a dumb hope but she held on to it, despite the serious chance for disappointment. "Get up. Get up before I get you up, asshole."

 

[Halcyon638]

The professor stood, grimacing a bit and clutching his chest. He smiled. “That was impressive,” he said. He began to walk slowly. “I can save you the trip and tell you you aren’t going to find anyone but my father, but if you insist…” As they progressed toward the farmhouse, he said, “Yes, Paige. She was a difficult one. I really had high hopes for her, but…sometimes these things don’t work out.” He glanced off at a flower garden in the backyard. “If it’s any consolation…she’s still part of something beautiful. I picked her wife a bouquet this summer to boost her spirits. It seemed poetic, somehow.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded. She'd expected on some level that was the case, as he'd kept kidnapping. She was hoping the lack of a body meant Paige was alive but... it had been a foolish hope. Maybe a selfish one at that. Her life would be easier and less tangled if Paige had survived all this. She turned to Ines "stay with Hadley, wait for the cops. I need to make sure that he's not fucking bullshitting us." She had to make sure Paige was really dead, before she went and told Melanie that. She was worried the news would break the older woman, coupled with the truth of her friend being Paige's murderer. She wasn't sure she was equipped to tell her, but... who else? Some impersonal knock from a cop? She couldn't leave it to someone else. "Alright well. We have to look all through the house no matter what."

 

[Halcyon638]

“As you wish,” Leonard said. It was a neatly kept and ordered house, charming even, with few if any hints of the secret monster with which it was associated. On the second floor, Leonard opened the door to a room in which a pale, grey-haired, elderly man sat in a wheelchair, staring blankly out the window. “Dad?” Mateo said to the elder Leonard. “I’m going to go away for a little while, but I’ll send someone. Okay?”

Shortly after, Monica heard sirens in the distance. The police were close to the farm now.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica sighed and steered Mateo out of the house. "This is gonna kill Melanie. how could you? How could you do that to your own friend?" She zip tied his hands behind his back and left him with Ines, taking the shells out of the shotgun so she didn't do anything she regretted. Then she got into the sliver. the last thing she needed was to stick around for the cops in a strange small town outside of the city where they knew here. She watched to make sure nothing happened, but as they arrived she took off heading back towards Prospect City. She texted Gabi to say she'd call in a bit, then called Melanie Howe.

 

[Halcyon638]

After four rings, Melanie picked up the phone as the Sliver made its way across the city limits. A light drizzle was still falling. "Hello?"

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica didn't know what to say for a minute. She felt this awful sinking in her stomach, this leaden feel that was as paralyzing as her earlier depression. She cleared her throat, to buy herself a moment, to think of what to say. She inhaled then exhaled "Melanie" she started, still unsure how to approach it. Weren't cops trained to do this? Still she wouldn't want to hear from some cop. Especially for weeks. It would take forever for them to dig Paige up and ID her. Fuck she needed to text Knapp and tell him to search for bodies. Dammit. She fished out her other phone and did that as she spoke again "I uh. Need to talk to you and it should be in person. Can you come get me at my place in an hour? or I can come to your place in an hour. Either way."

 

[Halcyon638]

There was silence on the phone. “Yes…of course,” Melanie said. “I can do either. You just let me know.”

Knapp texted, “Hadley is at the farm? Can you confirm?”

A text from Monica’s father came in. “I heard on social media that one of you and Gabi’s friends is missing??? Are you okay? Do you need me to come?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"Why don't you come pick me up in 90 minutes. I need a shower first. I need to tell you about Mateo. I think its important you hear it from me before anyone else." Though who knew, it might hit the news. She might have time to cut that off though. "I'll see you then"

She texted Knapp "Hadley is safe. Rescued her, tied up Mateo Leonard. Local PD were arriving as I left. Get over there. She's doped up. She's going to need you."

She then called her father, letting him know she was ok and that he'd see everything on the news. She let him know hiking was probably off and he wouldn't need to come pick her up, then she kept him on the phone a while, just needing to talk to him. To anyone really. When she lived at home there'd been long stretches of silence as neither of them felt the need to speak, but she was shaken. Shaken by the fact she couldn't save everyone, shaken by what would have happened if she had kept deciding it was Townes. Afraid of what she might have done to Townes if she hadn't changed targets. Ass she approached the city she got off and changed, then headed home and had a shower before checking to see if Shaun was still there.

 

[Halcyon638]

There was just a quick “Thank you” from Knapp, nothing else.

Monica’s father did his best to reassure her, though found himself at a loss for words at times. When she arrived at her apartment, Shaun and Gabi were sitting on the couch, Gabi scrolling through her phone while he kept an arm draped around her. “Hey,” the brunette said, getting up and greeting her with a lethargic hug. “Any news?”

The 90 minutes seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. As Monica entered the car, she saw the concern on Melanie’s face. “Monica,” she said simply, then started up the vehicle. “Why don’t we go to my office? Less of a drive and just about everyone should have gone home for the day,” she said, voice wavering. It was a little before 6 P.M. now, and the rain had finally stopped.