Chapter 8: First Prey
Phoenix was eyeing a holographic screen when Justin, Angel, and Razor entered the room. Steeljaw watched from his pool, and Aqua stood nearby, twirling a small trident in her hands.
"Ah, good, you're here" Phoenix said as Justin entered, "Perfect timing."
Aqua looked over Justin in his new outfit, though his helmet was still cradled under his arm. After a few moments, she nodded in approval.
"Not bad" she said.
Justin nodded back before Phoenix directed his attention to the screen. On it, he saw numerous files with a singular picture of a teenage girl with blonde hair dominating the center. Justin recognized her immediately.
"Isn't that- "he began. Phoenix finished his statement with a nod.
"Yup" he said, "Alison Cardinal. Her father, as you may know, owns the only corporation that openly protests most of the laws regulating superheroes: CardinTech. She's gone missing."
Justin wasn't surprised. "Yeah, I remember Commissioner Wayne mentioning something like that recently. I wasn't allowed in on it until he learned more though."
Angel explained. "Thanks to Razor, we know that she was taken by some new underground gang that apparently either decided to take up trafficking or they're holding her for ransom; we're not quite sure. We also don't know how they managed to get her, but we do know that, thanks to a tracker that Engineer made, we have followed the gang to this warehouse."
She taps a few buttons on the screen, and a map appears, with a red dot marking to warehouse's location on the outer border of the city.
Razor added. "This may be a good opportunity for you to test out your new skills. Stealth and Intimidation will be of best use here."
Justin nodded as a plan formed in his head. "Alright. When can I leave?"
Angel turned to him with a seemingly grateful smile. "As soon as you want to."
…
Commissioner Wayne sat at his desk, seemingly deflated. It had only been a day since Justin disappeared but things had already gotten worse at the station. CardinTech's head, Henry Cardinal, had been all over the cops, calling at least three times a day to see if they had found his daughter. It was understandable, but rather stressful. Add on that the police force's top detective had disappeared and is probably dead, things got only worse.
Wayne rubbed his face in exhaustion; the stress was becoming too much. Suddenly, the lights flickered and went out in the office, startling the Commissioner Wayne frantically stood up and looked around in the dark while reaching for the pistol holstered under his desk, unaware of the presence that rose up from behind him until it spoke in a deep, techno voice.
"I know where she is" he said.
Wayne whipped around, raising the gun, only for an armored hand to shoot out and knock the gun out of his hand. Wayne stared in shock at the shadow, though he only saw an angular, orange, glowing line where the eyes should be. A surge of anxiety welled up in the Commissioner, though the shadow made no other movements.
"Who are you?" Wayne finally managed to ask.
"Someone who desires justice, like you" the shadow said, "But going back to the point. I know where she is."
Before Wayne could ask more, the shadow handed him a slip of paper with an address written on it. Wayne studied it as the shadow said, "If you trust me, have a squad be at that location in the half hour. I'll be there too and so will she. Oh, and be ready to make some arrests."
Wayne shook his head in disbelief; he wasn't sure if this was a weird surge of luck, a dumb prank, or something else. He looked up to ask the shadow more, but it had disappeared and the lights turned back on, leaving Wayne somewhat unsure of what to do.
…
Meanwhile, the warehouse outside of town seemed empty from the outside, should no one pay attention to the lights shining from within. Inside, multiple thugs gathered around in expectance as they waited for their boss to arrive. They were all dressed in various casual and shady looking clothes, but what showed they were together was the black, plastic, hockey masks they wore. The leader of the group, a tall, middle-aged man, whose face was also concealed by a mask, but this one had white zig-zag markings to show he was in charge.
One of the thugs looked nervous, and leaned over to the leader. "So, he's really coming?"
The leader didn't even flinch. "So he told me."
"But…is it true what they say about him? He's a super?"
"I don't know. I never met the guy."
Just then, an engine sound was heard coming closer from outside, and the doors creaked open to allow and armored truck to enter. Many of the other thugs grew increasingly nervous as the door opened and an armored leg appeared, followed by the rest of the figure. He was completely concealed by a frightening set of armor, appearing like that of a sort of modern horned knight. The armor itself seemed to glow, like it just came off the forge and hadn't been cooled. The figure approached the group, all of them backing away a few steps save for the leader, who leaned back a bit, but held his ground as the figure stopped in front of him, heat radiating off his body.
"You're the boss?" the leader asked.
The figure's voice was hollow and echoed through the armor. "No. He sends his regards though; there was something else he had to attend to. Apparently, one of his attack dogs had gone missing."
"So, who are you?"
"Call me Scorch. Now, where is she?"
The leader motioned behind him, and two thugs brought out a girl, whose head was covered by a sack, which they promptly pulled off to show a teenage girl, her face red from both tears and slap marks. However, her current face showed a stoic expression.
Scorch eyed her over. "Well…you guys really did pull through. I will admit, I had my doubts."
The girl glared at Scorch. "What do you want with me?"
Scorch simply chuckled. "It's simple, really. I want the people, especially your soft father, to see that maybe, just maybe, trusting us enhanced was a very bad idea. You're going to be part of that demonstration."
"It won't work. The heroes will find you."
Scorch leaned over, his face inches from hers. "I doubt that very much."
Suddenly, the lights flickered and went out in the warehouse, leaving only Scorch's glowing armor as the source of light. The thugs instinctively raised their guns, trying to find anything unusual in the dark.
"Go check it out" the thug leader ordered a few of his men.
"Is something wrong?" Scorch asked, his tone dangerously calm.
"It's an older warehouse" the leader replied, "Probably just a power outage or something."
Just then, a sharp banging echoed through the place, as if something hard just fell.
"That's some outage" Scorch said.
The leader simply raised his gun; what on earth did that?
"It doesn't matter" the leader said after a few moments, "Just take the girl and- "
But as he turned around, he gasped in surprise; their captive had somehow disappeared!
Even Scorch found he was surprised at the sight, but that surprise quickly turned to anger. "What?!"
"What the hell?!" the leader gasped. Suddenly, Scorch, grabbed the man by his shirt and pulled him close to his face.
"You find that girl" the villain growled, "Or it's your head."
Before any of the thugs had a chance to split up, a shadow dropped down from above, revealing itself to be a caped, armored figure that landed in the center of the group before proceeding to attack each of them. Those on the outer group ran in panic, though Scorch, his curiosity temporarily overpowering his anger, remained where he was, trying to get a glimpse of the figure in the mass of flying fists and bodies. The newcomer fought with incredible skill, but…Razor never wears a cape. Who was this?
His answer quickly came when the fighting stopped, the thugs lying in unconscious piles around the newcomer, allowing Scorch to see the armored figure in full before the two made eye contact. After a few brief moments, the armored figure reached for his belt, but Scorch didn't want him to pull out whatever it was he was going to pull and lifted one of his hands. Suddenly, the armored figure hesitated and tensed as a searing pain shot into his arm.
Scorch chuckled as he approached the figure. "Hurts, doesn't it? Y'know, you wouldn't be the first super I had to burn, but it always feels satisfying. I actually fried a poor little fish recently."
The figure's grip tightened on something, and Scorch only had time to notice a glowing, blue object before the figure slammed it into Scorch's neck, sending a burst of electricity through his body. Scorch groaned in pain and stumbled back, releasing he figure from his burning grip. By the time the shocks stopped and Scorch's senses cleared, the figure had vanished.
Scorch clenched his fists in anger, but then began to chuckle in amusement. "Alright then, I suppose I could use a decent challenge."
He then heard the wail of police sirens in the distance and immediately made his way out. By the time the police arrived, Scorch was long gone.
As the cops investigated the scene, they found Alison hiding in the back. She claimed a superhero had saved her and asked her to hide there until the cops arrived. The police continued to look around, but the only signs any hero had been there was the unconscious bodies of the thugs, whom they promptly arrested. Wayne was with them, looking around with his flashlight before his eyes came to rest on a symbol branded into the wall: a crescent moon with a scythe blade crossing through it. What confused Wayne even more was that he had never seen this symbol before, yet he knew that this was the same figure who had approached him earlier and told him about this place.
"Who are you?" he used to himself.
As the cops continued their search, the dark figure, Night Reaper watched them from the roof of a nearby building for a few moments before turning away with a swing of his cape.
"All in all" Night Reaper said to himself, "Not too bad for a first night…"
But then he thought back to the one who burned him; he mentioned doing this to other supers, including…
Immediately, he dialed Angel. "It's Night Reaper. I completed the mission, but we've got a problem. You may want to get Aqua in on this too."
"How come?" Angel's voice asked over the coms.
Night Reaper's voice turned grim. "Because I think I just found her killer."
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