Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

“Oh. I called Kat and just said…there was a family emergency. I hope that was okay. She seemed really nice,” Gabi told her, smiling weakly.

Within the shed, Monica opened up the hatch that led down into his workshop. To the untrained eye, it would have just resembled a typical prepper’s bunker. Below, there was a host of Centauri tech, the vast majority of which she was unfamiliar with. Still, with her scientific acumen, she was able to spot a few items that seemed like they could be what she was looking for.

She got to work on the device. Gabi came in at one point. “Hey. It doesn’t seem to be moving. The phone. But you know where they’re going to, right? Where this transmitter thing is?”

It was approaching 3 o’clock as Monica finished up her work on the device. It had taken 3 hours, but finally, the green light on the device flashed and the message “Inbound,” with the ETA being 5:30. Gabi appeared at the top of the staircase again. “Babe, I made some sandwiches. Come eat.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica shook her head "i know its in the upper peninsula of michigan, but its not like its Centauri Disney. I've never been there. We're gonna have to see if there's any notes or anything on his computer or in the workshop."

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica and Gabi searched her father’s computer and workshop. As nonchalant as he had been about giving his password out to his daughter or about letting a possible neighbor stroll through his backyard, he apparently had been more cautious about hiding other secrets. When Monica finally found a backup hard drive stashed away, she and Gabi found that it was encrypted and not unlockable by the password on his computer. “Damn it,” Gabi said.

 

[siobhancan99]

"well. fuck. Keep that handy in case we need to involve the government." She'd be mad as fuck if her dad was NOT being held hostage and was just being a douche about answering. She changed into her gear, needing something to do as she waited on the sliver. "if that phone is just by the side of the road, someone is dying."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi’s eyes widened at the mentioned of the government. “But…wait…wouldn’t they find out about…you guys?” She received a text and looked down at her phone, then walked out of the room to answer it. When she returned, she sighed and sat on the couch, propping up the side of her face with the palm of her hand. “My dad. He’s really trying to get me to come home.” She hugged Monica tightly once more. “Maybe…it just got tossed there,” she said, referencing the cell phone.

Absentmindedly, Gabi threw on a football game and slumped down to half-watch it while scrolling through her phone. “Heyy…do you think this is the first time your dad’s been asked to fix this thing? Do you remember him having to do these kind of trips before?” Monica couldn’t recall him going on any long, unexplained road trips recently, and she imagined he would tell her if it involved Centauri business, as he had seemed very open with her about it in the past.

A sudden memory came to Monica. She remembered a long road trip to visit a family friend back before her parents had told her the truth about their family. Monica didn’t remember anything about their “friend” but did recall she lived right near the beach; she had distinct memories of her mother and this woman taking her wandering the dune-covered beach and not recalling why her father wasn’t with her that day.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica hmmmed "i must have been three, because after that they told me all about everything so that I didn't go like, lift another kid over my head at school or something" She hmmmed "we went to the beach. My mother took pictures. There might be some in one of her old binders. My dad kept all her shit in her studio, 'in case she decided to come back' you know?" She headed into the other room "maybe its labled or something..." She started looking for albums or envelopes with pictures in them.

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi followed her into the room, but then her phone began to ring. “Sorry, I have to take this. It’s Dad.” She stepped out of the room, phone pressed to the side of her face.

Monica’s mother had left behind two photo albums along with some scattered envelopes. Most were of Monica when she was younger significantly—sitting on a park bench with her mother holding an ice cream cone, swimming, singing in the school chorus. There was a photo of Gabi and Monica getting their haircut at the same time for the latter’s tenth birthday, both girls beaming at the camera. In one photo, Monica, her mother, and her father all lay sprawled on a picnic blanket, her parents embracing one another with a natural ease.

Eventually, Monica found photos that conjured up her memories from the beach. There were sizable, desert-like dunes that she remembered being much larger. Her mother was smiling in both photos; one of them featured the dark-haired “family friend,” a statuesque young woman with a mischievous glint in her eyes to rival Monica’s.

Flipping the photos, Monica found that they were labeled “Sleeping Bear Dunes.” A quick search revealed it was Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, located along the northwest coast of the lower peninsula of Michigan, not far from the village of Empire, Michigan.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica sighed. "gabi..." She turned and tugged her girlfriend in. "In case... In case someone comes here looking for my dad... maybe you should be at your parents. OR kayla's. or zoe's. You can stay here if you want, but I would like you to consider going somewhere else." She ran her hands along her girlfriend's back, then leaned in and kissed her forehead "i can't lose you ok? I can't. it would break me." She slipped her hands up to cup Gabi's face, brushing her thumbs along her cheekbones. "I need to go to Michigan, and I need you to be safe."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi closed her eyes and pressed her lips against Monica’s, kissing her warmly. “It’s okay, querida. I didn’t…I didn’t want to be here alone anyway. I’ll try Zoe or Ian.” She slipped her fingers into Monica’s. “I’ll be okay. We Ruizes are pretty tough. You have to promise me the same, okay?”

What was usually an 11-plus hour drive via car looked to be about half that via the Sliver, though it would involve zipping through parts of Canada. At one point, Officer Reynolds called to notify Monica that they would be towing her father’s car over.

Finally, the Sliver appeared. Gabi packed Monica a meal for the road and stroked her hair. “Zoe’s going to come pick me up. Promise me you’ll be back in time for Pryce’s party tomorrow. I need to drink some terrible beer with you and see how long Angela Brock makes it before throwing up.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"I promise ill be back" SHe kissed her girl softly "just make sure you make out with her before she throws up" making a joke of it, then runs her hands along Gabi's sides. "Its a long trip. I'll need some company so... feel free to call." She runs her hands along Gabi's arms, then holds her close "I promise I'll be home as soon as I can my love" she squeezed her tight "I'm gonna have to fly low to avoid radar, so you might see the sightings on the news..." she reluctantly let go, then headed out to the ship. She set as direct a route as she could, wanting to be there before midnight.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Te amo, carino,” Gabi said. As Monica pulled away and moved toward the Sliver, Gabi slid towards her and pulled her in for another kiss. The brunette’s tongue caressed Monica’s steadily as the older girl felt the soft weight of the Latina’s breasts against her and tasted a hint of her salted caramel lip balm. “Don’t leave a girl waiting.”

As the Sliver took off and Monica made her way, Gabi texted her with updates—silently steaming over Zoe’s uncle making an off-color remark about immigrants, catching up with Zoe’s friendly, brilliant older brother, the amount of leftovers Zoe tried to foist on her before Gabi accepted a modest plate of turkey, stuffing, and pie—then slipped away to call her, briefly at first, then for a longer session at about the four-hour mark of Monica’s journey.

“Zoe’s been in total Mom-mode,” she said. “She’s been great. She’s already got a pile of food put away for me to take to you and your dad when you guys get back,” Gabi said. “I miss you already. Any problems so far?”

As expected, Monica reached her destination of Empire, Michigan about an hour and a half later. A few of the homes in the small village were now decked out with Christmas lights.

 

[siobhancan99]

"Hmmm" she knew the place was small. She could probably buzz the few streets looking for the white van, but she had to assume all the residents were Centauri. She kept the sliver high, looking for the van and going street to street. At the same time she tried to think about where outside of town something like that could be. Also it probably had to interact with the local stargate by laser to work... so maybe in the course of fixing it her father would have to send up a laser which would act like a beacon.

 

[Halcyon638]

The Sliver skimmed across the darkened sky as Monica searched the area. It was a little past 11:45 when she arrived. Fortunately, Empire was small enough that it didn’t take much time for her to cover, but there was no sign of a white van, at least as of yet. She could just make out the outline of a tall structure on the village’s outskirts. As she approached it, it appeared to be a cell phone tower roughly 150 feet in height, surrounded by a chain-link fence.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded to herself. That had to be it. Actual cell towers were way smaller these days. She set the sliver down inside the perimiter, in case her arrival triggered security she would want to be able to get to it and get out with a reasonable amount of speed. Getting down out of the craft she let her eyes adjust to the dark, then looked for a structure and possible means of entry.

 

[Halcyon638]

As Monica approached, she saw that the tower appeared to have no entry point, just a single metal ladder built into it that ascended the height of the structure. Very fine, light flakes of snow were beginning to fall as the clock crept toward 12:30.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica was not about to climb a 150 foot, snow covered ladder. She had a ship for that. She swiftly ascended the tower, shining the lights of the sliver onto the structure to see if anyone was on it working.

 

[Halcyon638]

As the Sliver approached, she didn't spot anyone atop the tower. The immediate vicinity appeared deserted at the moment. After another hour or so of waiting, Monica saw a van with, headlights off, coming down the road toward the structure about 250 feet in the distance.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica flicked the lights off the sliver and withdrew a slight distance, not wanting to be near the structure at first. she could watch and approach once whoever was in the van made their way up the tower. For now, her goal was to see if her father was ok, and if necessary to intervene.

 

[Halcyon638]

Before long, Monica saw Thalrem exit the vehicle and make his way around to the back. After a few minutes, she spotted her father walking away from the rear of the vehicle carrying a black duffel bag, trailed about ten feet behind by the other blond-haired Centauri, who was aiming a pistol at his back. They trudged in silence toward the bottom of the tower's ladder.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica hmmmed as two of them would be impossible to deal with with her father at gunpoint. she needed a distraction. She assumed the fix would be long term, and so she crept up on the van, looking to see if she could puncture the gas tank with a tool and perhaps light it on fire. something that might draw one of the two down and away from the beacon.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica began moving toward the van methodically, knowing that Thalrem’s low-light vision would make it more challenging than usual. Still, he seemed distracted enough with training the gun on James. She covered the ground as quickly as she could.

Her breath caught as her heel crunched down on the remnants of an amber-hued beer bottle. The Centauri swiveled toward the sound, aiming the gun in her direction and away from her father while tilting his body to keep an eye on James. “Who the hell are you?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica did her best Christian Bale voice "I'm Batman" then did a flourish like she had a cape. "you're gonna want to actually look at me, if you think the gun's going to scare me fuckhead." She growled, trying to be gravelly and disdainful all at once. At the same time she scooped up a bit of gravel with the side of her foot and kicked it towards the blonde centauri to be annoying and draw his attention so her father could run.

 

[Halcyon638]

As James made a move, Monica saw the man hesitate as if decided whether to try to secure her father or confront this new threat. Thalrem moved with frightening speed to catch up to her father and with a single kick to the back of his head, knocked James to the ground. “Now you have my full attention,” he said placidly, turning to face Monica.

 

[siobhancan99]

"good" Monica launched herself forward, bringing up a knee in a feint as if she were going for the cliched ball hit, but instead then launched a fist for his nose, trying to smash it back into his face and flatten it as best she could against his stupid skull.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica’s fist crashed into the Centauri’s jaw instead, jostling his head for a moment. A wide smile spread across his face. “Oh, so this is the daughter,” he said. “I want you to know that I legitimately agreed to all of your terms. I wanted to train you. It was your dad here who decided to lured me out into a motel parking lot and tried to shoot me.”

The blond-haired man lunged toward Monica with the same devastating speed she had just witnessed. Before she knew it, Thalrem has his arms around here and was grasping her tightly. His strength was almost overwhelming as his taut muscles gathered her against his hard torso. “Believe me, fighting you is the last thing I want to do.”