Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

Gabi stood up, placing the water on the edge of the living room table. “Monica…” She wrapped her friend up in a tight hug. “I’m not going to leave you, okay?” Gabi stroked the back of her head. “We will figure it out,” she assured her roommate, looking her directly in the eyes. She leaned toward Monica and said softly, into her ear, “Okay?” Gabi placed a warm, tender kiss just below where her ear met her jawline. “I don’t care what it takes. I’ll get a job. Two jobs.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica sighed "Gabi.." she kissed Gabi's temple then gently extricated herself "Before you make any decisions we have to talk about .... where I go at night. I didn't want to talk to you about it because I didn't want to worry you but. You deserve to make your own choices knowing the truth and having all the information, and if you can't handle it I get it. I understand but... look it is something you have to know." She inhaled and exhaled slowly "I mean, its one of two things that you have to know."

She ran her fingers through her hair, stressed. She really didn't want to tell Gabi at all but all she could hear was Knapp telling her that she had to let people make their own choices. She felt like telling her was an invitation to some supervillain kidnapping her or something. At the very least she expected Gabi to ask her to stop.

"I don't ...know... the vigilante Gabi. I.... " She felt the world spin and had to sit "fuck Gabi I mean I feel like you already know but..." She buried her face in her hands "I am the vigilante."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi sat beside Monica, hands folded. “You know you can tell me anything,” she said, stroking the back of her friend’s neck. When the news emerged, the dark-haired biology major said nothing initially. A moment later, she slid her arm around Monica’s lower back.

“I know, mi vida,” Gabi said. “It’s okay.” She broke up the cap of her water bottle, but didn’t take a sip. “I’ve known for a little while now. At least…well, let’s say I was 90% sure. The whole ‘night jogging’ thing.” She smiled at Monica. “Plus, there’s what happened with Tom. The only thing that was keeping it at 90 percent was…like, I still don’t get how you did it. Do it. Like, how are you staying alive? I know you’re in good shape, but taking on guys with guns and…vampire monsters? Because I couldn’t logically explain it, I could kinda…dismiss it for a while. It was only…the crazy monster lady situation that made me rethink whether you…had, like, superpowers or something.”

She started peeling the label of the bottle. “The other night I was…I know I was getting in the way of you going out and doing…whatever you do, but I was…I was afraid to let you go alone. And plus, I…I needed you. I know Hadley did, too, but I wasn’t…I wasn’t thinking very clearly. It was eating me up until you—you found her. Saved her.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nearly wept. Gabi rejecting her would have been the thing that sent her straight into being the punisher or something. She'd probably have just robbed big time drug dealers and killed people till she was caught. She clung tight to Gabi "I like... thought you knew because of what you said but... god I want to think so many things you say are a certain way and... like.. you know. you hope for things" She let her go and sniffed a little. She wanted a drink so bad but she had work at 3. She settled for a Dr. Pepper. She needed something to do with her hands because this is the part that was going to really make or break her.

"So you remember like, a year into me dating Tom I was grounded and I wasn't allowed to see him or do anything with anyone after school?" it had been a remarkable event because her father had been notoriously unconcerned after her welfare. After all, if she got into a situation she didn't like she was going to be the problem for everyone else, not the other way around. "It's because I told him what I am about to tell you now. And I'm... I'm sorry that I never did. Because you're my best friend and if anything happened to us like.. I couldn't fucking handle it." She sipped at her soda, then looked up at the ceiling a moment. "I was gonna tell you while we were home tomorrow anyway. More show you... like its easier to show you because what I'm gonna say sounds fucking insane..."

She leaned back against the counter and looked over at Gabi "My mother..." she figured she should leave her dad out of it now, and it was technically not lying to not mention him in this context "Was not born in Sweden. When she went home... She uh... didn't go back to Sweden."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi listened, occasionally stroking Monica’s hair. There was concern on her face, but nothing to indicate she was disturbed by or judging what she heard. “Go ahead, Mon,” she said, taking Monica’s hand in hers.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica squeezed Gabi's hand in hers "God saying it out loud sounds really stupid but um." She shifted a little "I'm uh... well my mom went like... not back to her planet but um. not earth." she shifted a little "so uh. you know. she uh...well. I'm like... really really strong. Like stronger than the strongest man strong. Like... I can lift like a ton or a ton and a half over my head and uh... i'm like... hardy. I guess. I hate talking about myself and uh... I mean if I was you I'd think I was bullshitting. I wanted to show you by lifting a really heavy rock or something but uh. Obviously I kinda had to rush this so conditions aren't perfect"

"So anyway... like. Am I Wonder Woman? No. I'm like... a stronger, faster tougher but not as well trained batgirl I guess? I'm superhuman to the extent that I'm... a little bit better than the best of you. But I'm not you know... able to lift a bus or fly or anything."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi’s brown eyes widened, her mouth agape a bit. “Umm…yeah…was not expecting that news. Not that I don’t believe you, but…let’s just say for the sake of the scientist in me. Can you…like, could you lift this couch over your head? I can get off it if you need, I just…Just help that part of my brain understand.” She started to get off the couch. “Unless that’s not how it works. Like, if you need to, transform or something, or say Shazam, or whatever.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica gestured "stay on the couch its fine. Just hold on cause the couch is awkward." she got up and easily lifted one side of the couch, then crouched so she could get more under it and hefted it into the air "This is about 10 percent of what I can lift on a good day by itself, with you on it that adds a bit so like, maybe 15 percent?" She set the couch down "I mean, scientist. I have a weird flying ship that hovers in place and comes when I call it. That's not exactly terrestrial tech. The suit is bullet proof too. I'm not bullet proof, but I'm injury resistant and I heal fast. Like that mutant girl ripped my side open pretty much but ... no scar. I will also age slower than you. My mom is like... 46 47 I wanna say, so she was 40 when she left but she looked like ... 30 maybe?"

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi nodded as if she understood, but Monica could tell her friend’s thoughts were now racing a mile a minute. “O…kay,” the brunette said. “So you’re…not human? Where are you from? Sorry if that’s racist. Species-ist.” She managed a smile for a moment before going back to looking as if she was working through a chemical equation. “Do you still have the same…um…anatomy? Physiology? I’m sorry—if I’m asking too many questions. I’m just…I want to understand.” She took a sip of her water bottle. Monica could see her grasp was a little shaky.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica deadpans "well my pussy has teeth, which really bothered Austin till he got used to it." She smirked after "Honestly Gabi I don't know that I'm not... as you might call it... human." She sat back on the couch "Centauri fossil records suggest that we didn't evolve on our home planet. It's possible that we come from earth like... thousands of years ago. We found another planet though, with earth/centauri people on it before as well so its possible there's some kind of panspermia thing going on? or like... life was engineered by some alien race and sent out into the galaxy or something? Centauri science and philosophy doesn't concern itself overly with questions that aren't of immediate use and then there's the fact that prior to everything going to hell I guess there was a set of ruling families... more like Roman tribes? like the Scipii or the Julii or whatever. So they all have their own secrets and there's not a lot of sharing of information. Or wasn't. i'm not sure what the situation is now. Remember that like... everything I think I know about what I know about that is like, filtered through a few people that weren't exactly students of history. My mother basically was raised from the time of being a small child to be some sort of commando. Even she admitted that mostly what she knew about life was family propaganda. I bleed red, im biologically similar enough to you to share a blood type in fact, and so.. who knows."

 

[Halcyon638]

“So, your dad…is he…Centauri too?” She leaned backward on the couch and put her hand to her forehead momentarily. “And…why are you guys here? Your mom was…a commando. Are we in danger?”

Gabi smiled weakly. “Is this your last big secret for today? Because….it’s fine, but if you’re, like, the secret daughter of the Queen of England or you shot JFK, I think I’m going to need a few days. Or months.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica brushed off the question about her dad "No, we're not in any danger. So, when I was three and you were two there was a civil war of some sort. My mom didn't really know the details because her mission was here. So she got everything second-hand, but it seems like one of the colonies wanted independence or something and they made a terrible weapon that could blow up a sun. Well they used it, and the homeworld is gone. Supposedly... but who knows... the great houses were making an exodus when a fight broke out at the gate, as most of the houses couldn't agree on going to a colony owned by one house, then leaving for their own space. The head of my mother's family and his bitterest rival agreed to go to the rival's space. They and the greatest members of their houses defended the gate while the others went through. Lots of the great houses were destroyed. Well not destroyed they had their colonial holdings. But like, there used to be a billion of them and now there's maybe... a few hundred thousand? A couple million? and like... most of the tech and stuff was on the homeworld. The colonies are all specialized... my " she screwed up her mouth a bit "my mother eventually went back to like, reconquer everything or some shit but like... there's 8 billion people on earth. Even if every one of us picked up a gun and came here we'd be destroyed. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't still a few hundred of us on earth. Most apparently went back to serve the remnants of their houses but... why would you? I dunno."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi took a sip of water. “Well…I’m glad that you told me all of this,” she said, looking across the room at the blank television. “It’s going to take…some time for this to all sink in. And I’m probably going to have a lot more questions for you. Not now,” she said, continuing to tear at the bottle’s label. “Or…I guess I have one more. Why are you telling me this…now?” She tilted her head to look at Monica.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nods "Why? Well. Ok. so you have things in your life you're trying to figure out. You can't really make decisions without knowing all the facts. If you would make different decisions knowing something well...If I hide that information from you then I've stolen that opportunity for you to make your own choices. So like, one of the things you have to figure out is if you're going to stay or go and well... if you stay ... when I disappear at night to do what I do can you handle that? You need to be able to make those decisions for yourself. Also you were just saying you'd fuck your mom off and get two jobs to stay. Maybe... now that I'm not having a panic attack that you're going to leave like everyone else... maybe that's not the best choice. Maybe it is. You can't decide that without all the information. Losing your mom's money means cutting into your grades. If you did that, if you fucked up school to stay with me and I was lying to you or hiding myself from you.... That would be pretty fucked up. I would in a way have done that to you. That isn't what we're supposed to do to each other."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi stroked Monica’s hand. “Thanks for telling me. I know it’s…I’m sure it wasn’t easy. But it doesn’t…I haven’t changed my mind. I’m still going to make this work. I can’t do this without you, too, you know,” she said, looking her friend in the eye. "I wouldn't want to."

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica wrapped an arm around Gabi and leaned in a little. She gave her friend a very gentle squeeze "good. Now, you think about whether or not staying here is feasible. Before you protest.... they won't give me another room mate till next semester at least and you can just fucking stay here every night you want to anyway. Your mom will be more willing to back down if you have a legit plan too, so look at jobs and stuff. Speaking of which... I need to get to mine. The Centauri metabolism needs constant feeding and that means work unless I wanna start robbing drug dealers or something"

She laughed and stood "we will figure it out beautiful. Also, I'll need a shower before we meet your mom so tell her 630 or 7 for dinner."

As Monica headed out to work she texted Mel just in the hopes of confirming she was alive.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Oh my god,” Gabi said, smiling. “That’s why you can eat the way you can. We’ll make sure to fill you up at dinner.”

By the time Monica arrived at work and was in the thick of things, an hour or so had passed since she’d texted Mel with no response. A text came in from Austin.

Hey. How are you doing? I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow during the day. I’ve got the whole Midnight Madness thing that night but with classes being cancelled, should be free early afternoon. It’s totally cool if you need to be with your friends or something.

At work, Monica continued building one of the sets for The Crucible. Her shift went quickly enough. Just as she was about to leave, she received another text:

Melanie: Thanks for checking in. I’m at my sister’s right now. How is your friend?

When Monica returned home, Gabi and her parents weren’t there. She was getting out of the shower when she heard the door open and heard them conversing in Spanish, mainly her father complaining about his insurance sales job. By the time Monica had gotten dressed and emerged from her room, Gabi and her parents were sitting in the living room.

“Monica,” Sara said as she entered the room. “Come here. Aqui,” she said, patting the couch cushion next to her.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica texted Austin to say she was tied up with friends because of everything that happened. She felt a tiny bit guilty, but she figured with the day off she should spend it with Gabi and trying to make sure Hadley was OK. She also texted Hadley to see exactly that, figuring enough time had passed. She texted Mel to say that she wasn't sure, that she would be checking up on her tonight but she wanted to give her space. She didn't add she was glad to hear from her as that meant she was alive... it was a dark thought and she figured Melanie had enough of those on her own without her adding to them.

The shower was welcome, and she stayed in to the point of practically boiling herself. She left her hair down, and put on some light makeup to get ready for dinner. When she saw Sara on the couch she tensed a little bit, but the woman seemed to be offering an olive branch of some sort and she knew she had to make nice for Gabi. Also the woman had been a mother to her, for the past seven years. She tamped down her desire to scream at her for taking Gabi away, then moved over and sat on the couch. "Hey everyone."

 

[Halcyon638]

The family greeted Monica, though with a hint of awkwardness.

“Like I said before,” Sara said, putting a hand on Monica’s shoulder as she sat down, “I really appreciate how much you look out for Gabriela, and how much you care for her. I want you to know that this isn’t just about me worrying about my daughter. When I heard about what happened to this girl, it terrified me. I don’t remember being this scared before. But I wasn’t just worried about Gabi.”

“You are like a daughter to us, mija,” the older woman said, eyes starting to well up a bit. “The thought of either of you being in danger makes me sick. If I could, I would have asked my brother to take you both in. You are always welcome at our house.”

She sighed. “But Orlando…he told me I wasn’t listening to you before,” she said, gesturing to Orlando, “and…and he was right.”

“Broken clock and all that,” he chimed in with a wry smile, then looked back down at his phone.

Sara continued, “I was…am, to be honest…totally terrified, and I just…I reacted out of fear. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.” She wrapped her arms around Monica. “Gabi wants to stay with you and…well, I have to respect her choice. You just have to keep up what you promised me…keep her safe, and keep yourself safe, too, okay? And it wouldn’t kill you to text me once in a while,” she added, giving Monica a playful nudge with her knuckles. “You go to a 90s party and you don’t ask me for any ideas? I was killing it back then."

“Absolutamente,” Orlando said. “What are our feelings on Chinese food?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded "Gabi and I will always look out for each other. We always have you know?" She smiled over at her friend. "I'll keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't get too carried away with the boys and goes to class" She looked back to Sara "All kidding aside. You two mean the world to me" she gestured at Sara and Orlando "You took me in sort of after my mom fucked off into the ether. You've always been so good to me. And yes. I should text more. And yes, you two should come down here more. If you did some things in the city occasionally, you could check in on us and take us to dinner. Then you could be sure we weren't getting into trouble and were eating properly. Speaking of which, yes. Chinese sounds great. There's this place over by 5th called Three Kingdoms. It looks really good. They do dim sum and they just wheel carts around like a legit place. So you see what any cart has and if it strikes your fancy you get it."

As they settled in at the restaurant, Monica wanted a bit of everything. Not only was she starving from her escapades the night before, everything smelled amazing and she was riding high after Sara changed her mind about Gabi moving out. It was like old times for a moment, with Gabi's family feeding her and providing her a safe haven. Where she didn't think about her troubles for a few minutes, and dove into steamed and fried dumplings, sauteed vegetables and scallion pancake.

 

[Halcyon638]

It was the first time Monica had seen Gabi act like herself since before Hadley had been kidnapped. If the were ongoing problems between Orlando and Sara, they had put them aside for the time being, eating and reminiscing about good times past. “I don’t know which of you two had the idea,” Sara said, referring to a time when Gabi and Monica had decided they were going to spend the night in the snow fort they’d built in the woods nearby, “but thank god I had to call your parents about something. I can’t even remember what. And when your dad told me you two weren’t there…”

“Come on, we would have been fine,” Gabi said. “Monica did the engineering. We could have camped out there for a week.”

“All I remember is you two drinking your own weight in hot chocolate after I found you,” Orlando remarked with a grin.

As the evening went on, Orlando and Sara went back to the girls' apartment to spend more time with them. Gabi took the opportunity to speak to Monica when her parents were occupied. “I don’t know that I’m up for Ian’s show tonight. I’m probably just going to stay in. I kinda feel like I owe it to my parents to stay in at least tonight, and I’m actually not feeling like doing much. We could hang out if you’d like. I think they'll probably head out in another hour."

 

[siobhancan99]

"It was a sound theory! The walls were over a foot thick and eventually our body heat would have brought the inside up to around 65 degrees." Monica pouted "It ... you know just would have taken a while. A few hours more and we'd have been toasty. well not exactly toasty. more like.... sort of comfortable."

As they sat in the apartment Monica wanted a beer, but she also wanted to not deal with Gabi's parents. She also thought that if she walked late at night into a liquor store dressed in her vigilante garb she might be able to get served without Austin, which was a bit of a score. Austin. She really did sort of owe him a visit but she also felt like something might occur between her and Gabi soon and she wasn't sure she wanted to mess with that. When Gabi suggested staying in for the night she nodded, not for that reason but just because she agreed with Gabi. They'd won a huge victory here with Sara and well, pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered as the farm kids used to say. She was content to take the win and leave it at that. "Of course. We can play your game or something." Just a quiet night in with the roommate. She emailed Knapp to see how he was holding up, just to make sure to stay on top of the Knapps in both identities as they probably needed the support right about now. She texted Ian to let them know with everything going on they'd make the next show, and thanked him for all the help finding Hadley. It still rankled a bit, but she had to try to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and assume he was genuine about changing his life. Plus Eve seemed cool and being friends with a band was not a terrible idea at all.

"Let's totally stay in."

 

[Halcyon638]

Around 9:30, Gabi’s parents said their goodnights. Orlando and Sara hugged Gabi and Monica alike. “We have the hotel for one more night,” Sara said as she embraced Monica, “and I hear that someone is craving homemade carnitas.” Smiling, she and her husband walked toward the parking lot.

Monica received a text from Ian:

No worries at all. It’ll be good to see you all whenever. Give the roomie a hug for me and hope your friend is holding up okay.

Gabi came out of her bedroom still wearing the hoodie and pink top she was wearing, but having changed out of her jeans into some comfortable, baggy pajama pants. “Alright, princesa. Are you ready for some Dungeons and Dragons?” she said, announcing the game’s name in an exaggeratedly dramatic fashion while waggling her fingers.

“Oooh, by the way, I have to ask my parents to take us to Target tomorrow. We still need Halloween decorations!”

As they settled at the table, Gabi set the stage for Monica’s first adventure. Her noble sorcerer character was trying to restore the name of her now-disgraced house by becoming an adventurer, and started off in a small frontier village far from home. She was accompanied by Granuff, a stoic dwarven fighter who had served her family and felt obligated to protect her. Gabi was clearly get a kick out of doing the voices for the characters but especially for the gruff dwarf.

Monica’s character was asked to investigate the disappearance of a few of the village’s younger citizens who had gone off by themselves seeking revenge on some bandits after a series of attacks. The village elder sent his daughter Ilessa, an elven ranger, to accompany the princess and the dwarf on their quest. “ ‘We are most grateful to you for your assistance,’ ” Gabi said as the party was about to set out from the settlement, doing a pseudo-British, refined accent for Ilessa, a smile on her face.

 

[siobhancan99]

Gabi was clearly more in her element than Monica, who did not have the courage to find a voice for her character. She was lucky she hadn't named it "Monica" to be honest. Not because she didn't care but because this was all very new. She'd always wanted to play when Gabi took it up in high school but Tom hadn't been into it and she'd... well she'd been very into Tom. IT was honestly a little daunting to get started, given how much experience Gabi had and also how much effort she'd clearly put into things. She bit her lip and shifted a little, looking over her character and not really getting it. Spell points and slots and known spells and some skills. Saving throws. What the fuck were those. She supposed she'd figure it out soon enough.

She looked up at Gabi, nervous for a minute "well. I'm happy to be coming along" she figured she should at least speak in character. "You're a scout of some sort? Can you uh... follow the group that left earlier and see where they are going? like.. track them or something?" She'd read over the Player's Handbook a little and she seemed to remember that was something rangers did. "Or do we know where they were headed or anything?" She sorted through Gabi's assorted dice, wanting a set that matched. She didn't like the solid-colored ones and basically listened while she hunted out a set of purple ones that were kind of transparent.

 

[Halcyon638]

“ ‘But of course, mi’lady’ the elf says to you, and she does a little bow,” Gabi narrated, taking a sip of her flavored sparkling water. Gabi described Monica’s party traveling through the woods and being beset upon by wandering hobgoblins, leading to her character’s first fight. “Okay. Because you’re the only player, I’m going to let you control Granuff here, too, so I’m not just rolling all the dice. Don’t want to put you to sleep,” she said playfully. “I’ll control Ilessa.”

Gabi talked her through each step and rule of the fight with patience and humor. Monica managed to use a spell called Magic Missile to wreak some havoc. “You really can’t go wrong with that spell, especially while you’re waiting to get lightning powers and all that fun stuff,” Gabi explained. Monica rolled less impressively for Granuff, who seemed incapable of hitting the broad side of a barn. When Monica’s character was threatened by one goblin sneaking up from behind, the elf closed the gap and drove it off before Monica finally did some major damage with the dwarf.

“Nice!” Gabi said once the fight was over. “Ilessa walks over to you and she’s looking kind of sweaty from the fight—hot sweaty, not gross sweaty. Like, she’s definitely making it work,” Gabi says with a smile. “ ‘That was very impressive, mi’lady,’ she says. “ ‘You’re as powerful as you are beautiful.’ ”