Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

The building was a tasteful blend of ultramodern design and country estate, though the portions of the home that were almost completely glass did make Monica wonder about the obscenity of the man’s heating bills. The lawn was impeccably landscape, leaving aside the fact that it was beaten down by the Canadian winter. There appeared to be lights on in two separate sections of the house, one on the ground floor and one on the high-ceilinged third floor.

 

[siobhancan99]

Breaking into the house seemed like a bad idea all around. She circled, looking for something that resembled a door and when she found it she rang the bell. She stood, shivering in the canadian winter cold, rubbing her hands together and stamping her feet as she waited for some kind of response from within the house.

 

[Halcyon638]

A voice came through an intercom that was cleverly concealed. “You have exactly 30 seconds to give me one solid reason why I shouldn’t have my security guards taser you and subdue you until the authorities arrive. Also, this may be Canada, but I have managed to stockpile a very American-style arsenal of guns.” The tone was more agitated than threatening.

 

[siobhancan99]

"I know this is Canada and all and you have like, Canadian content laws and stuff but I assumed you at least got some news from civilization. So uh. Sorry." Monica leaned around looking for a camera and then said in Centauri "I'm kind of a big deal. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany" though she had to use the word "mahogany" itself since it was a tree and there weren't mahogany trees on the Centauri homeworld, or at least her limited Centauri didn't reveal the word for it if there were. "Seriously though I'm a superhero and I also know you understand what I'm saying so there's a certain degree of futility in sending out your earth-born goons. Really please just talk to me its important and its about saving the world from you know. Us. really."

 

[Halcyon638]

There was silence. Monica waited in the cold for a what felt like minutes. Eventually, the intercom sounded again. “The door should be open,” the voice said in Centauri. Monica found herself in the vast, well-lit foyer, starting to warm up again. A man entered from a hallway. He had closely cropped dark hair contrasted with a full, curly black beard, and leonine features, and was dressed in flannel pajama pants along with a black Gozilla t-shirt. He was wearing glasses, though Monica knew that they were very likely for fashion only. “Can I get you some coffee? Tea? Hot chocolate?”

He folded his arms across his chest. “You’re a little far from Prospect City, aren’t you…Ms. Nighthawk? Alex Robbins. Or, Sutter. It’s been a long time. How did you find me?"

 

[siobhancan99]

"tea would be great" She paused a moment, then decided to be polite and took her helmet off "Monica Bergenson." She shook her hair out and looked up at him. She wondered if he would recognize any of her mother in her. In the invasion, her mother had been just another commando. It wasn't necessarily true he'd be up on things enough to put "my dad, James, told me about you. My mom, Signe... uh. I guess she's back to her Centauri name now that she's gone. But uh, if you knew them here. or knew of them. It would have been James and Signe. Anyway, uh. My dad was a tech and my mother was, er , is battle caste." She took her armored boots off, assuming that the offer of tea meant that they weren't going to be standing in the hall and not wanting to track dirt into his house. "I figured you were Centauri. I mean. well the armor designer was. When I stopped that shipment. What my dad said confirmed it then I did some homework. Found some folks that knew you."

 

[Halcyon638]

Sutter blinked a few times as Monica unmasked. “You’re so…young,” he observed. A gleam of recognition spread across his face as she mentioned her parents. “Yeah, I…uh…the names are familiar. I’m sure I…exchanged an email or two with your dad back in the day. This was dial-up times we’re talking about—a very long time ago.”

He led Monica through the house into a massive dining room adjoining a sleek, gorgeous kitchen. “Wow. I thought I’d covered my tracks pretty well. I’m guessing with what you said about saving the world that…the High Command didn’t send you after me?”

Sutter began boiling some water for tea. He picked a ripe pear out of his fruit basket. “Pear? Clementine?” As the tea began to steep, he said, “So…saving the world?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"pears are my favorite. Thank you." She took the pear. "and no. Uh. Look. full disclosure. Uh. My mom is uh." she toyed with the pear in her hands and twisted it over and around in her hands. "my mom is... uh well enough people died. you know" she gestured vaguely at the sky "that she's uh. kind of. you know. Heir to the empire. or something." She looked uncomfortable. "but look she fucked off into space when i was 12 and frankly. What she wants doesn't really factor into my life choices." She shifted uncomfortably "I don't know how much you know about the situation out there. but uh. What I'm gonna say is going to sound like some fairy tale bullshit."

 

[Halcyon638]

Sutter poured the tea, after serving Monica, taking a cup himself and leaning back against the counter. “I know about your bloodline. About your uncle being next in line, blah blah blah.” He took a sip of tea. “Part of the beauty of the life I’ve created for myself is not needing to know about all of that bullshit. I remain gleefully ignorant.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"yeah. so. well. I guess there's these guys. The Unity or something. And they're uh. Psychic to some degree. Well it seems like they might have blown up the homeworld and uh. Well that war is still pretty much raging through the heavens. Anyway. Those of us here on earth have plenty to fear from either side getting the upper hand. Psychics that look like humans coming here and dominating our world leaders seems bad. The empire that finally finishes them off and remembers they wanted to conquer this planet and subjugate its people seems worse. I want to be able to control who comes here through the warp, or failing that, shut it down so nobody can come here. Ever. To leave this planet to its own devices. My father said you could do it. Also, there's a weird encrypted signal coming in from home and well, i'd be much obliged if you had some hand in helping us figure that out. but really its the first thing that's important. I mean ultimately I want to maybe have us help the people here get some renewable energy and plastic replacements and stuff and I have some ideas on that and everything too but. Look, it benefits you and it benefits the rest of us if nobody from home can ever get here. hell, maybe if nobody from home can ever get anywhere."

 

[Halcyon638]

Sutter listened intently. After standing at the counter for a few minutes, he simply said, “Needs more sugar.” After adding another heaping spoonful, he made his way to the table. “You have my interest, Ms. Bergenson. I would have counted the Totality out by now. No one took them or their ‘space gods’ crap seriously for the longest time, and I suppose that’s coming back to bite us in the collective ass a bit.”

He sat down, draping one arm over the back of the chair. “Destroying the Warpstream is not an option, unless you want to risk a blast radius the size of Kansas, or you want every last Centauri operative on Earth to crawl of their respective hidey holes and hunt you down. But blocking the Warpstream…or getting remote control over it. It’s feasible, theoretically." He taps the spoon against the rim of the cup, deep in thought. "Or at least it was until about 2 years ago.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Leaning in, Monica took a bite of her pear "So what happened then? what happened to fuck up the warp?" She shifted in her seat "and what, if anything, can we do about it? Can we at least exploit it in some fashion?"

 

[Halcyon638]

"The Warp is fine," Sutter noted. "Well, not fine, from what I've heard, but there's a simple fix that even the dumbest religious zealots should stumble across given enough time. I could easily build a device to shut down the Warp on our end, or control it, or zap anyone entering to the ass end of the Milky Way. In fact, I was toying around with it when I had the notion that they might send someone to look for me and try to 'convince' me to work for them again--you mess with me, I take control of your most powerful asset."

He drained the last of his tea. "To do that, of course, I'd need a Fermion Interface Adapter. Unfortunately for you, the only one on this planet made its way into the hands of Rebecca Sawyer at HelixCorp," he said, referring to the Prospect City-based company specializing in advanced energy research, genetic engineering, and pharmaceuticals. "She's had it under lock and key ever since and from what I've heard, is throwing millions of dollars into researching it. So unless you happen to have a spare one lying around behind the couch cushions...Oh, and I wouldn't exactly count on persuading her to give it up for the 'good of the world' or what have you. I sent her several encrypted messages begging her to to turn it over for the safety of her and her employees citing some very real safety concerns. Must have gone to Spam."

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica hmmmed "i mean. If only you knew a girl who could lift a car over her head. though. Honestly stealing shit isn't great for my rep. Now. I know. well lets just say I might be exploiting my lineage in terms of getting a guy to do some things I want and HE can lift a car over his head. So. you know. It might end up in our hands. I guess too. Well. It occurred to me that maybe some measure of coming clean with the government might ultimately have to happen. So. There may be a diplomatic way to get ahold of it. If it comes down to it. What do you know about her and Helix? and how did she get it?"

 

[Halcyon638]

Sutter leaned forward and put the palms of his hands flat on the table. “Sawyer’s brilliant. And arrogant. She’s got her fingerprints on all kinds of cutting edge work and doesn’t seem to have much in the way of a conscience. You remember reading about the famine in Bolivia a few years ago? HelixCorp genetically modified seedlings started crossbreeding and ruined soy and corn harvests. Thousands of farmers fields’ were ruined and then snatched up by a subsidiary of Helix for pennies. They're just humans,” he said, with an undercurrent of contempt, "but still."

He scratched his head, then picked up his phone. “Excuse me.” He began to text. “Don’t know how she and Helix got their hands on it. Only that it's spectacularly bad luck, though I suppose it would be just as potentially harmful in the wrong Centauri hands."

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded "no way, I'm guessing, to duplicate it with current earth tech." She shifted "well I mean if she's evil. I guess though... I could take it and say its Centauri government property being reclaimed by the Centauri. Like, our existence is going to come out in some fashion. I'm not the only kid who is super strong. I'm just the first. My dad thought that I was probably the first one born but I'm sure not the last. The emperor wants something from me. I was considering uh, part of the price being opening a diplomatic channel. It might ease the way if we have to go in and take this thing from Helix." She was sold on getting it, but if she could get it and leave her reputation intact so much the better.

 

[Halcyon638]

Sutter shook his head at the notion of replicating it with Earth technology. “You’re right. At least, it would take brighter minds than me to do it. And as far as I’m aware, there are no brighter minds than me. At least on this miserable rock.”

He put his phone down. “Evil?” He shrugged. “She’s just playing the game using the advantages she’s been given. I can’t really fault her for that, on some level. It’s what I did. That said, I absolutely wouldn’t mind someone knocking her down a peg or two.”

Sutter let out a sneeze and excused himself before grabbing a Kleenex. “All you’d need to do is slap on another suit for the occasion. Call yourself the Night Cat or the Day Owl or something and dress in all white or purple or blue. I might even be able to help you with that—the suit part. The naming’s all you.”

Sneezing once more, he added, "Plus, the holding site's actually about 2, 3 hours north of Prospect City. They wouldn't automatically link it to you."

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded "I could absolutely do that." she shifted a little "are you ok?" she wondered if maybe she'd brought something in he was allergic to. If thats why maybe he lived out in the middle of god damn nowhere. She was concerned as her father wasn't up to the task of shutting down the warp so this guy had to live for sure.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Oh, I’m fine,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “It’s a bit of a cold, that’s all. Listen.” He leaned across the table again. “I want to keep the Totality out as much as you—maybe more, since I’ve got all of this to lose,” he said, his eyes sweeping across the vast space. “But you should know that I’ve spend the last two decades building this life away from the prying eyes of the High Command here on Earth. If you do anything to compromise that, there will be…consequences. Under that rubric would be giving the government—any government—any information that might tip them off to an alien race living under their noses. Do we have an understanding?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica regarded him for a long moment. She was of the opinion that all her people would have to come clean pretty soon. So she responded without making any promises "i hear you, loud and clear" She needed him to shut down the warp. After that well, she would have to see. He wasn't battle caste. If he was going to come for her, well... "I hear you."

 

[Halcyon638]

Sutter nodded. “I’m welling to help you in whatever capacity I can in terms of getting the advice, so as long as it…limits my exposure,” he told her. “The first step will be to gather whatever sort of intel we can on the facility, the security and so forth. Any thoughts?” He brought his tea cup to the sink.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica considered "I have a friend who worked at Helix as an intern. I'm not sure he'd know anything at all, but he might. You never know what sort of corporate tour or other bullshit they might have done. I can ask about that. Also, any construction they've done will have to have plans at the county wherever it is built. Some of that will be public record. You can literally just go in and ask for it. I mean if the plans are bullshit I can hardly call code enforcement but still, its not a bad idea to just check public information."

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica heard Sutter load the cup and the spoon into his dishwasher. “Good, good. That sounds like a plan. In the meantime, I can get started on a suit. I’ll…um…just need you to, uh…send me your measurements.” His face was a bit red as he turned around, but he regained his composure shortly after. “We should communicate only minimally and of course only through encrypted channels. The less involvement I have in this, the better.”

His expression softened somewhat. “I’m not trying to be a dick. I’m just about minimizing exposure. Start with those possible leads and if they don’t pan out…I will see what I can do. No promises, though.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nods "on the last tip. any chance you could communicate with my father about the encrypted signal that's been coming from home? Its beyond him but I think he could crack it with a little help."

 

[Halcyon638]

Sutter nodded without hesitation. "Sure. I can do that." He asked her for her father's contact information then quickly made a note of it, before asking Monica for hers as well.