Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

“Nothing. I’m fine,” Lily responded, waving her hand as if to dismiss the concerns, a smile appearing on her face again. Then, in a low volume, she said, “If you don’t go to that place, they’re going to kill me. They wanted me to send you there, but you can’t let them know. They’re waiting for you but you can’t let them know I told you.” Raising her voice again, Lily added, “It’s been a looong day, so if you’ll excuse me…” She started to open the door of her beat-up car.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica sighed and rolled her eyes, glad for the mask. "Sure thing." she considered just going back to bed. Lily and her brother had already proven more trouble than they were worth, and what was she going to do against a bunch of armed men? It occurred to her that the thing to do was call in a favor from Knapp. If the cops were waiting around there could be some kind of signal and they could all just swoop in and nab a bunch of bad guys at once. That way too she wouldn't have to fight her way through the place. It seemed worth a shot, and she got on her phone to text the detective.

 

[Halcyon638]

Lily’s car sputtered to a start, and she drove off. Monica didn’t receive an immediate response from Detective Knapp, but about ten minutes later, he responded. “Sorry for the delay. I’m not far from Benjamin Park but I can call a patrol over if you think it’s going to be a shitshow. Anything else I should know?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica texted back "Might wanna send a few. They're sure they can take me, so that either means numbers or abject stupidity. Either way its a recipe for disaster. Maybe keep them back a bit until a minute or two after they see my ship arrive."

She sighed, looking back at the sliver. She hurt and she wanted to go home. Hopefully a bunch of cops showing up convinced these assholes that they were fucked and there'd be no fight. Gabi would fucking kill her if she came home more beat up than she was. A chance to hit the Imperial though... it seemed like one she had to take.

 

[Halcyon638]

“You got it,” Knapp texted back. “I can send someone over to watch over this girl if it seems like she’s legit in danger.”

At a little before 10:30, Monica piloted the Sliver near the community center. She received a text from Knapp. “Can you talk?” Calling his number, he said, “We’ve got four patrol cars in the general area ready to roll into action when you say the word.” Much of the rundown building was boarded up, but she could see a dim light emanating from one of the rooms on the ground floor. “You want to skip out on this, we can sweep in.” He paused. “I was…worried about you on Saturday.”

Circling in her craft, Monica spotted no vehicles in the building’s parking lot. The area seemed quiet.

 

[siobhancan99]

"I was worried about me too. I'm worried about me now, I'm not 100 percent by any stretch. I'm gonna go in. wait about 90 seconds then come in, no lights. no sirens."

Monica landed the craft and took 5 or 10 seconds to look the building over. She moved in, looking for an entrance, trying to move quickly. She didn't want the cops arriving with her outside, but she also didn't want them too far behind. It was a balancing act really. Once she found a door she could open, she texted Knapp how to go in and slipped into the building, heading towards the area with the lit room.

 

[Halcyon638]

A musty smell permeated the building. Monica moved down the main hallway swiftly. The room from which the light was coming was an open classroom-style space that faced the street. Another light was on in the interior room across from it. She heard a sound that resembled water boiling in the interior room. Near the entrance of the building, she caught sight of flashlight beams as Knapp and some other officers began to enter.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica moved to the door of the interior room, peeking her head around the corner. She called out, wanting to keep up the illusion that she didn't know it was a trap. It might distract whoever was inside from the presence of the cops entering the building. "Damon? Damon come out I just want a word. This is the Nighthawk. you know, uh. From TV and shit." Smooth. She was sooo smooth. "Look I just have a few questions and I'll make it worth your while."

 

[Halcyon638]

A broad-chested, brawny man in his early thirties in a beat-up hoodie and jeans was cooking something on the community center’s electric range. He had a bushy brown beard, though it was more Pacific Northwest than homeless guy. Monica vaguely seemed to recall him from brief glimpses of photos she’d seen attached to articles about his disappearance. His large fingers were breaking up a block of packaged ramen noodles.

The man turned toward her. “Nighthawk? What…what are you doing here?” He still held the red package of noodles in his hand. He placed them on the counter above a slightly open cupboard drawer.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica looked around. It didn't SEEM like this was a trap. Still, one never knew. "I'm here to talk to you about the Imperial, Damon. I understand you work for him, and I understand once the cops get ahold of you that you're not going to be able to talk, so I'm here to persuade you to save some lives and let me know what you know about him before you get arrested or he decides to have you killed. Which is you know, inevitable. Loose ends, Damon. Men like him don't like loose ends you know? Just a matter of time before he decides you're one. So talk to me, let me do what I do. Maybe let the cops move you somewhere safe."

 

[Halcyon638]

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” he said, turning back to the stove. “You want some ramen noodles? Best meal 45 cents can buy.” The man pulled out the slightly open cupboard drawer and reached in for what appeared to be a gun. “Now!” he shouted. About 30 feet away, an adjoining door began to open.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica sprang into action "you dumb mother fucker. the police are outside." She launched a kick for the drawer, hoping to break his wrist with his hand stuck in the drawer. "Some chick I didn't actually help suddenly gives you up and I'm not supposed to be suspicious? I'm the Nighthawk not the Slowhawk." She hoped the police would arrive in time for her not to be gunned down in a hail of bullets. Honestly, she wished she had some time alone with this creep. Getting back to her warm soft loving girlfriend alive, however, had to take precedent over beating the tar out of him. She couldn't do to Gabi what had been done to her. She couldn't make her attend a funeral. At the end of the day the cops might make it harder to get info, but they'd get her back home alive.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica’s kick managed to close the drawer on his hand, but from the man’s expression, it was clear it was more painful than debilitating. “You expect me to believe that?” he said in response to her remark about the cops. He went to open the drawer again, warily eyeing her.

A man and a woman both emerged from the doorway. The man was broad-shouldered with prominent jowls despite being in what seemed like his thirties and wore an army jacket over jeans. The woman had black hair tightly pulled back in a ponytail, lip and nose piercings, and dark blue and black running gear. Both carried silenced pistols which they now aimed toward Monica.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica shrugged "look I'd honestly prefer at this point that your guns be out. That way they can shoot the two of you that are basically useless to me. IF you were smart enough to ambush me somewhere you had cameras outside you'd already see them. The fact that you're a mouth breather though...I'm doubting you know anything useful." She moved, trying to push him at the other pair. She was strong enough to throw him across a street, but with one arm in play it wasn't exactly like she was operating at full capacity.

 

[Halcyon638]

The bearded man flew into the air, smacking his head against the cabinet and throwing off the other two attackers. Both of them attempted to recover and fire on Monica, but their shots went wide or high.

Damon looked more enraged then injured, though he had a sizeable cut streaming blood from his forehead. “You don’t know who you’re fucking with,” he promised her. “Kill this cunt!”

 

[siobhancan99]

"I don't? are you not Damon? Well gosh." She moved, concentrating now on trying to keep him in the line of fire of his friends. She was less concerned with offense than defense. She just had to dance around till her backup got there. For now, she just kept circling, juking this way and that to keep the big man in the way of any shots "If you're not Damon I can just head out." Teasing him a bit, hoping to get him to make a mistake or open himself up.

 

[Halcyon638]

The bearded man hung back, staying out of the way, as the other man and the dark-haired woman tried to get a bead on Monica. Both shots missed, one of them ricocheting off a kitchen sink, as the Detective Knapp and another officer streamed through the entrance through which she had passed, guns in the air, more cops close behind them. “Drop the gun!” he shouted.

The two armed criminals instead angled their weapons over toward the police officers, both of whom were equipped with Kevlar vests.

 

[siobhancan99]

"Told you, dumbfuck" She launched a kick for Damon now, trying full offense. She lashed out, driving her foot for the inside of his knee, trying to put him on the ground. "you idiots are gonna get shot in the head. you don't have kevlar faces."

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica heard a resonant crack of bone, followed by an anguished groan. The bearded man collapsed to the ground. The man and the woman raised their guns into the air, seeing the bevvy of cops waiting at the door. “Well well,” Knapp said, making his way into the room and pulling out handcuffs. “You two shit stains just won the lottery. We got to you before she did.”

He clapped the cuffs on the wounded guy. “Give the lady some room,” he instructed the cops behind him, indicating that they should move aside to let her exit.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica looked down at the injured man "give me a minute? I promise I won't do anything more to him. I just need a word and it would be awkward for everyone involved if he was interviewed by me at the station." she moved stiffly, still really hurting. She crouched "listen, here's what's gonna happen. After they arrest you the imperial will try to kill you to silence you. You have one option, which is let me get to him before he gets to you. So what do you say? Give me a little something and maybe you make it."

 

[Halcyon638]

The bearded man ground his teeth together, still in agony, while the other two criminals allowed themselves to be handcuffed without any resistance whatsoever, both with completely calm and composed expressions on their faces. The grimace on Damon's face ebbed. “Fuck,” he sighed. “Okay.” He struggled to sit up while handcuffed.

“He could fucking kill me for this, okay?” He stared off into the mid-distance. “Sometimes…” He looked up at Monica now. “Sometimes, I feel…I’ve got to…run away. I’ve got to…”

His voice picked up a melody now, “Get away from the pain you drive into the heart of meee. The love we share seems to…go nowhere.”

“Alright, asshole,” Knapp said, “karaoke time’s over.”

A smile crossed the man’s face. “This tainted love you’ve given, I give you all a boy could give you.”

“On your feet, douchebag,” Knapp said, grabbing hold of the cuffs to drag him to a standing position.

"Take my tears and that's not nearly all, tainted love, ohhh."

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica straightened "Knapp. Put the word out here that Mr. Damon is being put into protective custody as a cooperative witness. Keep him in solitary then lets see about putting him in an apartment. One that people can get at."

She pulled knapp aside "we can leak the location, and spring a trap for who comes for him. But maybe in the meantime he figures out that he's already dead if he goes into general population." It was underhanded, but Monica wasn't a cop. She was a tired bruised girl who wanted to get back to the loving arms of her woman. So she headed out, and did just that, streaking home in the sliver, changing on the roof and sending the ship off. She made her way down the fire escape, then found her girl and sat next to her on the bed, running her fingers through her hair, watching her face.

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi, sleeping, cradled a pillow in her arms. Her angelic face looked peaceful, and she didn’t wake up, even once Monica settled into bed beside her.

***

“So, what do you think?” Hadley asked Monica, Porter, and Layla. Monica and Gabi had asked for help setting up and the three of them had answered the call. The sophomore engineering major was sporting a beret and carrying a very fake, very plastic rifle as part of her Patty Hearst costume. “Kind of bummed that the gun looks so fake. I swear it’d be easier to get my hands on a real assault rifle. ‘Merica!”

“I wouldn’t mess with you,” Layla, decked out in noir detective garb, offered, popping a chip into her mouth, while Porter in his druid costume began taking out the bottles of alcohol that Monica and Gabi had managed to accumulate over the week.

“That is quite the haul, Mon,” Hadley remarked, strolling over to the counter. “Friggin’ hot girls and their easy access to alcohol,” she said, glancing over at Monica in full vampire attire. “It ain’t fair, I tells ya.”

There was a knock at the door—most likely Gabi and Cristina, the former having gone over to the latter’s apartment to get ready so she and Monica could surprise one another with their costumes.

Opening the door, Monica found her girlfriend standing there. Gabi was decked out in full goth gear: dark eyeshadow and lipstick, spiked choker, black fishnet stockings and boots, a small black dress that hugged her curves and showed off some of her cleavage, a trickle of fake blood running down from her fake fangs to her chin. The dark-haired girl looked her over from top hat to toe. “So…aren’t you going to invite me in?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica was decked out semi-androgeounously in a crushed velvet jacket, a lacy shirt, black pants and boots, and a cool top hat. She also had on wire rim glasses, with her hair down, curled. She had a lacey cravat to finish off the look, and like gabi used makeup to simulate a pale white face and blood coming from her fangs. "I don't know. My mother said not to talk to strange women. She said they'd only do me wrong" She grinned and moved out of the way. She'd healed a little, so at least she wasn't entirely pained, but she wasn't exactly loving life either. Still, seeing her fine looking girlfriend all gothed out and super hot... "you might uh. you know. wanna. consider this look. occasionally. Corazon." she grinned and kissed her again, then brushed her nose along Gabi's "its unfair how fucking hot you got in the last year, my love."

 

[Halcyon638]

The desire was evident in Gabi’s eyes as Monica admired her look and the Latina did the same with Monica’s outfit. A soft hand reached out to play with Monica’s blonde curls. “Whatever my dark mistress commands,” she teased. A smile of utter bliss appeared on Gabi’s face at Monica’s last sentence. As Monica nuzzled her, the Latina said in a lowered volume, “and it’s unfair how much I just want to haul you off and fuck you right now.”

Gabi stepped aside, making way for Cristina, who was dressed as Prince, guitar slung over her shoulder and a plastic container full of Halloween cupcakes in her hands. “Hey. Very cool costume. Your hair looks amazing.”

“Anything that still needs to be set up?” Gabi asked, putting her hand on Monica’s mid-back as they moved toward the kitchen.

Before long, the apartment was at capacity. Among the invitees were the usual suspects, plus the Brit Cameron and Nick’s new boyfriend, Curtis. Hadley queued up Evil Dead 2 on the television while Gabi pulled up the joint playlist she and Monica had made on a break from schoolwork the night before, a mix of pop, country, and miscellaneous. A bit later, while sipping a rum and coke, Gabi lured Layla, Nick, Curtis, and Porter over to the table to talk D&D character plans.

There was plentiful laughter, drinks were flowing freely, and Monica’s beautiful girlfriend was regularly exchanging flirtatious glances with her. It was a welcome relief from the past few days. Aside from the pressures of mid-terms, two days after Monica had had her run-in at the abandoned community center, Lily and Brian Loffler had both been discovered with their throats slit in a parking garage. The man who she thought was Damon Collier turned out to have been some other dude with a criminal record and Collier was still missing. From what Detective Knapp had described, the Imperial refused to take the bait by coming after any of the three they arrested, and all three seemed to have limited information, all having been contacted by a mysterious woman in sunglasses who told them what to do and for how much. Knapp had described the Imperial’s organization as having something comparable to the structure of some terrorist groups where each small cell has little information about the identities, modus operandi, and objectives of the rest, and warned her that it could take a while to make much progress with their operation.

“I’m sorry I didn’t follow up with you on the tutoring gig,” Cristina said, taking advantage of one of the Dr. Peppers stocked in the fridge as she and Monica hung out near the counter, “but there were some last-minute liability issue or something and they couldn’t get the proper permissions for new tutors this fall. Gabi said you were pretty busy anyways so I hope you weren’t left hanging.”

“Oh my god, I love your costume,” Hadley said, coming over to Cristina, the New Yorker clearly drunk. “Mon, you gotta try this shit.” She thrust a bottle of Strongbow hard cider toward Monica. “Cam-Cam brought this shit. They drink it all the time ‘across the pond,’” she added putting on an exaggerated (and loud) British accent. “It’s like drinking golden…what is that—what’s the shit the gods drink? The Greek gods. Like Zeus and shit. Oh fuuuck, I hate this song but I kinda love it, you know?”

Monica received a text from Gabi. “I vant…to suck…your clit! ”