Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[Halcyon638]

“That’s it, baby,” Gabi said, her voice with an urgent edge to it. She pressed her warm, curvy, naked body against Monica, kissing her hard on the cheek, fingers pulsing inside the older girl. “You need this. You need this so bad.”

Gabi latched onto her lover’s neck, teeth sinking in, and then kissed the same spot, her hand rubbing Monica’s clit raw.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica pulled back from the hand as she finished, clutching Gabi to her. She moaned and buried her face in Gabi's neck, kissing over and over. Taking Gabi's hands she rolled her on her back, pinning her down and threading her fingers through Gabi's before pushing up to look at her "I did need that."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi smiled blissfully, looking into Monica’s eyes as the blonde girl shifted her into position. She reached out and lightly tapped the older girl on the nose. “Yeah, you did. You’ve been tense lately,” she said in a sympathetic tone. She traced a line down the side of Monica’s jawline, then along her neck.

Gabi pulled her lover closer to her chest and they cuddled until the cool air made them retreat underneath the blankets together. “By the way, it’s so hot when you take control.” Her hand idly toyed with Monica’s navel. “I guess that makes me…sub?” Blushing, she added, “I did this online quiz thing.”

She rested her head on Monica’s shoulder now. “What…about you? Is there anything I could be doing differently? Anything you…fantasize about?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"Baby I promise you that you're amazing and I like all the stuff we do." Monica nuzzled her girl's neck, her hands gently roaming down "I like seeing you get off a lot. I like seeing you feel good. I like hearing your moans. I like your mouth on me. I like when you talk to me" she ran her nails along her girl's skin, brushing softly, stroking along Gabi's soft body. "But mostly what I think about is coming home at night to curl up with you like this and holding you and feeling you next to me, all safe and warm."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi let out a contented sigh. “You’re so sweet, querida. I’m very lucky.” She curled in against Monica, fingers lightly kneading the curve of Monica’s hips.

Before long, Monica has drifted off to sleep, Gabi still resting her head on her chest. Her dreams were a jumble of images and sensations. In one of them, Gabi and Monica were back in the Japanese restaurant, albeit a slightly off-kilter version of the place, sitting across from Graham and Kendra. The dinner conversation was normal, as was the meal itself, though at a certain point, Kendra’s face grew blurry in Monica’s mind, and her voice sounded somewhat off. Moments later, Graham’s face morphed into Brendan Knapp’s. “You know this is my first time eating sushi?” the detective said.

At a certain point, Kendra/not-Kendra said to Monica, “god, I know I’ve seen you somewhere before? Where have I seen you before?”

Monica could feel herself struggling to try to recognize Kendra, but the strange visual and auditory haze hung over the woman. “Do you remember her, querida?” Gabi asked Monica. “Come on, baby. Try.”

When Monica looked over again, she saw Natalie Gray sitting across from her, smiling serenely. A few small drops of blood began to drip from the 30-something’s nose as Monica woke.

 

[siobhancan99]

Heart pounding in her chest, she woke with a start. She inhaled, holding the breath, then slowly exhaled, trying to get that feeling of the world closing in on her out of her head. Knapp was her fault for sure. She kept telling herself it was ok because he would have died fighting those Russians, but at the end of the day it wasn't. It wasn't ok. She inhaled, then exhaled again, whining softly in the back of her throat. She was also troubled by killing Natalie Gray, but less so. The woman was a fanatical cultist whose people snuffed out a billion lives in an instant. Still though. She'd fucking murdered her. She focused on that. It wasn't murder. It was war. Telling herself that over and over again she uncoupled from Gabi and headed into the bathroom. Texting her dad she said "Pittsburgh issues dealt with on a permanent basis." then emailed Alex to see about getting alternate armor for her and Thalmer, along with any information he had on where the device was being held by Helix.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica didn’t receive a response from Alex until that Sunday morning while she was prepping breakfast for her still-sleeping girlfriend. “The suits are coming along well. I like to think I have a decent eye for fashion. Regarding the holding facility, I was able to peruse the public plans, but just from the bit of information they offered, I can’t say. I’m attaching them to this message. I think you’ll need to delve deeper, whether it’s talking to your friend, getting to someone on the inside, hacking their system, etc.. That is not a risk I’m willing to take, by the way.”

Monica received an attachment with blueprints for a 5-story building. A moment later, she received a text from Zoe. “Any chance I could crash on your couch when I hit town for Gabi’s birthday? No biggie if not.” The Latina’s birthday was January 25th, the Wednesday of the second week of classes, but they were planning to celebrate in less than a week on the Saturday before.

 

[siobhancan99]

Talking to Nick had to seem natural, so Monica figured she'd grab him at lunch some time and see if he'd been out there. Maybe in the next few days. She picked up the phone, texting back to Zoe "we'd love to have you! why don't you come in Friday night and we can go out, maybe see Ian's band."

 

[Halcyon638]

Zoe texted back, “That would be so great! Thanks.” Monica’s former teammate had only gotten to hang out with them once over the break, spending most of it in California with her family on her father’s side. “So excited to start classes next week even if it’s just online lol,” she added, referring to the handful of courses she was take as a non-degree student at Prospect U. “At least I’m still getting invited to the hottest campus party,” she added with a winking emoji.

The first few days of classes were jam-packed. In addition to Monica’s Computational Methods in Engineering and Fundamentals of Electrical and Computer Engineering classes, she was taking Calculus II with Gabi along with Intro. to Computer Science and Survey of East Asian History I that covered up until the 1800s. Her first chance to catch Nick turned out to be in the dining hall Thursday afternoon, the third day of the semester.

The sophomore was talking to Layla about his boyfriend’s veganism as they walked away from the table. “So, I figured I’d try out the vegetarian thing for a week or so,” Nick said, “just to like, try to meet him halfway, but I caved after like, 3 hours. Well, closer to 8, but it was bad. And not only is he a vegan, but he, like, exercises regularly and volunteers and does like, things good people do. Do you know how hard doing things good people do is?”

“Wow, so sad for you,” Layla said, glancing at Monica with amusement.

 

[siobhancan99]

"well you know, you can content yourself with the fact that you drain a saint's balls. So there's that. You can be like, anoint me daddy, with your holy spunk" Monica grinned and sat down to eat, trying to casually steer the conversation around to Nick's internship, and whether or not he'd ever been in the facility where the Helix was kept or even knew anything about it at all.

 

[Halcyon638]

Nick and the others laughed. “True, true,” he said. Monica steered the conversation effectively and Gabi joined in, reminding him that he’d said he’d hook them up with an interview for an internship. “I’ll get around to it. It’s on the list!”

When Monica brought the discussion around to what exactly he’d done there, “you know, nothing big. Some network architecture stuff, some cybersecurity stuff. I got to poke holes in their security, which was fun.”

At the mention of the second site upstate, Nick nodded. “Yeah, I was in the city the whole time, but there was this one week where it was suddenly all hands on deck, and like my supervisors pulled a couple of the interns off the project we were working on to try to recreate this breach that maybe happened there? It was a little unclear. It was probably the most interesting part of the whole internship, honestly.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica hmmmed "what sort of attack was it" She wasn't sure that she could use this information but it didnt hurt to hear about it. "I'm guessing you patched it up so it can't happen again? I wish I could do stuff like that." She sipped at her Dr. pepper, watching Nick to see if he would succumb to the flattery and give up more information.

 

[Halcyon638]

“So, they made us sign an NDA about this, so don’t go, like, posting this on social or anything, but…” The acne-faced teenager took the bait, reeling off a jargon-laden explanation of what he did before, seeing their blank faces, he adjusted his language. “They only wanted us to point things out to them, so I assume they fixed it? So, theoretically they’re safe. I mean, I could find a way in if I really wanted to, not to brag or anything.”

“Why are you, like, in college if you already know how to do all this stuff?” Gabi said with a slightly teasing tone.

“Eww, you want me to get a job? Gross,” Nick said, shoving a handful of peanut butter M&Ms into his mouth.

 

[siobhancan99]

It was apparent that whatever breach this was wasn't replicable and more importantly she couldn't get Nick to do it. This wasn't his fight. She shelved the plan, deciding she'd just have to go in cold "yeah Nick, you're gonna have to support that saint while he's out healing the sick and shit. One of you two has to work."

 

[Halcyon638]

“Hey, I’ve got two and a half more years to play video games and paint models and do the occasional homework assignment, okay?” Nick said with a sly grin.

“So, what are we all doing for Gabi’s birthday?” Layla asked.

“Yeah, what are we all doing?” Gabi said, grinning at Monica coyly. All she knew was that they were celebrating it with her friends on Saturday, but few details aside from that. “Also, Zoe’s been texting me with alcohol requests. She’s going to pick some stuff up for us for when she hits town.”

Monica only had morning classes on Thursdays, and her next stop was her session with Melanie. Checking her “work” email, she found that she’d received a message from Sutter. “The dry cleaning is done. I’ve had it sent to the building on the corner of Clemons and Westhill. Let me know if you need any adjustments.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"Zoe is coming over, she's bringing liquor from home where we can get it much easier. I figured some drinking at our place, some games, then if we wanted later on we could go dancing. Just kinda feel the vibe and see what's what." After chatting a bit she made her excuses, texting Thalmer to meet her where the suits were done. She made her way into the building, looking around for the package. They needed to get a good fit then pick a day next week to hit helix. They also needed a plan for getting there as the sliver was too recognizable.

 

[Halcyon638]

The building appeared to be under construction, although the site was empty today. Before long, Monica was joined by Thalmer. He look more than a little rumpled, blonde stubble coating his face. “So. Does Her Highness prefer a dark roast or a light roast?” He was carrying two cups of coffee from a state-wide gas station chain. After a minute or two, they found a pair of large leather suitcases tucked inside an unfinished apartment. Opening them revealed two dark-hued bodysuits.

“Alright. Let’s give em a try,” the Centauri man said. Without warning, he was stripping off his shirt, uncovering his chiseled, muscular torso, and undoing his belt. “It’s a little cold in here, so don’t judge too harshly.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"shrinkage is a bitch, dude" she laughed and stripped down, getting into the suit "we don't have time for checking each other out anyway. I have therapy in 30 minutes." She worked herself into the suit, checking the fit and the look of both to make sure that they were adequate to distance them from her usual.

 

[Halcyon638]

“There’s always time. It’s just about your priorities,” Thalmer said with a smile. “Fine,” he said with an exaggerated sigh, turning his back. “Therapy, huh? That’s gotta be a first for a Centauri.” The suit fit Monica snugly but well, black with blood red accents at various points. It didn’t have the protection of her usual suit, but the gloves and boots seemed designed for climbing.

Thalmer turned, dressed in a similar suit, only with dark blue accents, his entire impressive frame accentuated by the garment. “So, what exactly do you have to complain about? ‘Daddy was always away fixing alien satellites and shit, boo hoo.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"not that I can actually complain to her about this but I murdered a Totality zealot last week and its giving me horrible nightmares. So yeah I have shit on my mind. Also I have a lot of pressure being me. You... I mean you seem like some really ripped hobo. I don't even know what you do for money. I have to go to school, navigate being queer, balance my relationship with an earth woman with my quest for vengeance on the criminal population that stole the love of my life from me. It's a lot."

 

[Halcyon638]

Thalmer stood silently, face covered by his black mask. After a long awkward pause, he removed it, an inscrutable expression on his face. A few moments later, he said, looking away from her, "So...what kind of intel you get on this place? And when you want to hit it? I can be in town Tuesday through Thursday." He began removing the suit methodically, carefully.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica sighed "sorry. I shouldn't have unloaded my bullshit on you. That's what a therapist is for. I have the public plans of the property but we can assume they are bullshit. There's a kid that can hack their system and maybe get more but" she inhaled and exhaled "its not the human's fight and I'd have to tell him too much to get him to help. could endanger us all. and him really. So we get to go in mostly blind."

 

[Halcyon638]

Thalmer turned away again and began to undress. When Monica apologized, he said, “No. I was out of line.” A few moments later, she heard the sound of the briefcase closing again.

“We could try to get someone on the inside. Not your hacker friend, but an employee.”

He turned around and finished pulling his shirt over his bare torso. “Did you want to…talk about it? The Totality member. You probably should talk to your therapist about the relationship stuff.” Thalmer picked up his coffee. “Not some…’ripped hobo,’ ” he added, a wry expression on his face.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica undressed, getting back into her clothes. she leaned against the wall, arms folded, looking out towards the street. "I." She looked down "I tried to reason with her. I tried to talk to her and it seemed for a minute like it was working. Then it was like something just snapped in her and she was like ranting about Cthulhu or whatever the Vast gods are. foaming at the mouth. She attacked me. I knocked her out but.' She covered her face "I knew that she could make trouble for me as the Nighthawk if I let her live and I knew she was never going to stop being a Totality soldier and she works at a giant chemical plant. I couldn't run the risk she'd cause some sort of chemical accident and Pittsburgh would turn into Bhopal. So I put her in her car and I drove it to the Ohio river, then i pushed it into the river where it sank and she drowned. And her kids were home. Sleeping. Those kids woke up with their mother missing. I wrote some crazy shit about vaccines and chemtrails on her facebook so everyone would assume she cracked. If she was raising the kids to believe in the Totality well. They'd tell a social worker their mother believed in evil space gods and there wouldn't be much more of an inquiry. At the time. Fuck. It was so easy to just do it. Everything I had to do was so fucking clear in the moment but now all I wonder is if I didn't kill her because she'd have inconvenienced me."

 

[Halcyon638]

Thalmer stood, holding his coffee but not drinking it. After a moment, he put it back down on an unfinished window sill. "Don't do this to yourself. Look...I don't know why you were getting tangled up with a member of the Totality but...do you think she would have had any hesitations about doing the same to you? You and your family, or Gabi? I don't claim to know you but I have the internet, and from everything I've heard, you go out of your fucking way every time to save lives. It's your thing. If there was another way, you would have found it. And the kids--you know who had kids? The BTK killer. Doesn't mean someone couldn't have saved the world a lot of pain by putting a bullet in his brain."

Thalmer sighed. "But I know logic doesn't help right now. I'm probably not helping right now. You need some time for your thoughts to gel with what you're feeling in the pit of your stomach. And they will."