Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

New Rockford's Heroes (Agnores x Candira)

Agnores

Star
Joined
May 15, 2012
Location
Arkansas
NOW

As Delsin approached the office of his therapist, Dr. Lindquist, he contemplated what kind of people actually needed therapy. Usually people with some sort of mental issues, right? Delsin had a broken family that had basically disowned him, sure, but did that necessitate therapy? He didn't think so, as he had been taken in by his best friend Eugene Sims' family. The Sims had loads of money, given that Eugene's dad was a doctor and his mother a lawyer.

A traumatic event? It was possible. Delsin's father had been abusive, and his mother all but non-existant. But he and his sister, Abigail, were fine. They coped and dealt with everything their family threw at them without any outside help. It couldn't have been that. Maybe it was the explosion about a month ago that had put Delsin in a coma for a couple of days. That was certainly traumatic. Supposedly. Delsin wasn't exactly cognizant to remember that, and it wasn't like anyone but his sister had cared, and she had been powerless to do anything about it.

The super powers? Maybe that was it. The explosion was caused by a group of scientists, who were on the cusp of discovering a form of infinite renewable energy. It had gone wrong and exploded, of course, sending energy and radiation throughout the city. Hundreds had died. Select few, like Delsin, had simply been knocked out. Even fewer of those people still had their freedom, however, as it had been discovered after several blood tests on the surviving victims that there was something in their blood, and this 'thing' colloquially called POWER seemed to give out...well, superpowers.

They had tested Delsin for POWER, of course, but he didn't scan positive, which was the only reason he still had his freedom. He had been lucky that his pal Eugene had both the tech knowledge and access to medical equipment, so that they could discover that certain powers drained the level of POWER in a person's blood until they were almost entirely human. This wasn't to say that Delsin had gotten rid of his POWER on purpose...but sometimes accidents are good, despite the fact they had chosen to keep this little factoid to themselves.

Delsin opened the door to Dr. Lindquist's office, stepping inside with a smile. He wore a simple hoodie with jeans, his hands casually resting in the pockets of the hoodie. "Hey," Delsin said with a wave, crossing the room and taking his seat. "Can I get off easy by just saying 'I am fine'? Or how about, 'I'm tired'. I had a long night last night."


LAST NIGHT

Wisp stood on the rooftop of a building across the street from the port warehouse, where he had learned through his father that a weapon's deal between some street gang called the Vipers and a weapons dealer named Arsenal was going down. He fidgeted around, trying to get comfortable in his clothes; he wore a trench coat, closed over a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. On his feet were combat boots, and he wore a stolen pair of his father's work gloves, with a ski mask and tinted goggles to hide his identity. Tonight was his first night out as a hero, and what a night it would be.

"Can you seem them yet, Del?" came a male, puberty ridden voice over the bluetooth headset Wisp wore under his mask. It was the voice of Eugene Sims, Wisp's close friend and tech master. Eugene might as well of had super powers; the kid was a prodigy when it came to anything technological. Using self-designed apps and medical equipment Eugene had stolen from his father, Eugene was monitoring Wisp's levels of POWER and vital signs from his home, as well as keeping track of where he was in the city.

"No," Wisp responded. "I'm gonna move closer."

"Do so quietly," Eugene warned, and Wisp was off. The warehouse was across the street, and thankfully there seemed to be few cars and fewer people in the area. Wisp would not freak anyone out with his superhuman display. He stepped off the edge of the building, falling straight for the ground. His body dissipated into smoke and heat when it impacted the ground, and the smoke coiled back up and formed back into Wisp within a second. Under the mask, Wisp smiled.

"Always freaks out my equipment when you do that," Eugene said over the bluetooth. Wisp didn't bother responding, bolting from his position on the sidewalk across the street towards the warehouse. Before his foot touched the asphalt of the road, Wisp allowed his body to dissipate again, this time becoming a ball of smoke and heat that dashed across two of the four lanes to the median. There his body reformed, but Wisp wasted no time before he repeated his action, dashing across the remaining lanes and arriving right outside a fence placed around the perimeter of the warehouse. One more smoke dash, and Wisp found himself at the edge of the building.

"I wonder why the shot lowers your POWER, but the dash doesn't," Eugene quipped again. Wisp didn't respond, moving to a nearby pipe. With the aid of the additional strength and agility provided by the POWER, Wisp easily climbed up the pipe, smoke dashing the last foot or so onto the roof of the warehouse. He crept towards the front of the warehouse, laying down as he crawled towards the front edge and peered over.

Several yards from the warehouse stood a group of five people, each wearing a leather jacket with a large, stylized viper emblazoned on the back. "I see the Vipers," Wisp said, whispering despite the fact there could be no way the Vipers could hear him from this distance. "Five of them."

"No sign of the weapon's dealer? Arsenal or whatever?" Eugene asked, and Wisp could hear him clicking around on his computer.

"None," Wisp said, right at the moment a large truck came into view, heading in the direction of the Vipers. "Wait," Wisp hurriedly whispered, watching the truck as it pulled closer, stopping a good distance away from the Vipers. Five men in what seemed to be army fatigues stepped out of the truck, two of them carrying a large chest. One of them was far bigger than the other four, and Wisp assumed that had to be Arsenal. "Found them. You have any descriptions for Arsenal? I see a big guy, walking around like he owns the place."

Eugene was quiet for a moment as Wisp watched the military men, each armed with what Wisp only assumed were machine guns, approached the Vipers, who seemed unarmed. "Yeah, that's probably him. Anything I find on the Internet suggests he's a big dude who you don't fuck with." Eugene finally answered.

"I'm gonna fuck with him," Wisp responded, with all the gusto of a person about to make terrible life decisions.
 
--Last night--​

As the arms dealer arrived, Wisp was not the only one watching. Nightingale was perched not far away herself. She had several spy devices on her, including cameras. She took photos of the truck and the people gathered so she could leave evidence for the police once this job was done. She would disrupt the meeting before any of the Vipers could be armed, and then she would disable Arsenal and his guards.

The heroine was ready to take action. All she needed was an opportunity and one final shot for proof. She crouched closer to the edge of the warehouse she was currently lying in wait on. Her eyes scanned the area, trying to take in all her surroundings. Her sonic device was at the ready. All she had to do was drop in. Literally.

But that was when she noticed someone who was about to make terrible life decisions. Shit! What was he doing?

--Today--​

Dr. Lindquist smiled as her newest patient entered the room. A young man named Delsin. She chuckled as he plopped down and asked immediately if there was any way out of this. His pleas to leave were met with understanding nods and smiles.

"Well, the appointment was made with your needs in mind. I'm just here to get a sense of what you need and try to help you. Maybe you won't need much, but I think you'll find that just talking about what might be bothering you feels pretty good. You say you're fine, and that might be true. Today. You say you're tired, so why don't we start there? Why don't you tell me why you're tired. What happened?"
 
Delsin smiled, leaning back in his seat. "I promise you won't find anything special there, doc. I mean, it was just me and my buddy Eugene staying up later than we should. Video games, y'know. Bane on our generation." He knew that answer would not be satisfactory, but it wasn't like he could tell her what he had really been up to: getting shot, a lot. Turned into human swiss cheese, as it were. Delsin was many things, but a good super hero was not one of them.




Wisp slowly crept back from the edge, turning and quietly making his way to the side of the building opposite from where Nightinggale sat, unbeknownst to Wisp. Wisp unceremoniously jumped from the roof of the warehouse to the ground, again dissipating into smoke and reforming. Creeping along the side of the building, Wisp peered around the edge towards the two gangs who were meeting. The two soldiers had put down the chest and backed away, with the guy assumed to be Arsenal standing next to it. One of the Vipers, a man with a long ponytail, was stepping towards the chest. Wisp assumed that was the Viper leader in this situation. Arsenal opened the chest, but Wisp couldn't see what was inside it. From what he could tell, however, the Viper leader was really happy with what he saw.

Deciding now was the time, Wisp smoke dashed from his cover by the building into the open behind the two groups. As he reformed, he held his hands up, palms out. He could feel the growing heat, and about the two several of the military lackeys realized he was there, to balls of smoke and heat fired from the palm of his hands, catching two of the Viper lackeys unaware. The smell of burnt hair filled Wisp's nostrils, but he didn't waste too much time; the military guys had their weapons up, calling out a warning. Wisp smoke dashed to the right, closer to the group and away from the first volley of fire from Arsenal's men, firing another smoke shot at a pour Viper who had turned around to see what the commotion was. His face contorted with pain as the smoke ball enveloped it, and when he hit the ground, he was nearly unrecognizable from the third degree burns.

While the Viper's had yet to pull any weapons or respond in any meaningful way, the military men were obviously well trained and practiced in combat situations. They wasted no time in adjusting their aim and firing at Wisp's new location. Wisp smoke dashed to the left, but not before a bullet caught him right above the ankle. When he reformed, the sudden pain that shot through his leg interrupted any plans of continuing his assault and brought him to the ground, crying out in pain. "Kill the freak!" yelled the Viper leader, and it was then that in addition to the automatic weapons carried by the military guys, the Vipers had also brought handguns to the fray.

Even with a healing factor, Wisp learned quickly that bullets hurt; a lot of bullets in quick succession, hurt an indesribable amount. As Wisp began to black out, the only thought on his mind was that he hoped his healing factor did not give out on him. He wasn't ready to die. Not yet.
 
Dr. Lindquist gave him a rather bland stare. It was obvious that she didn't believe that was the only reason he was tired. His answers were too easy, and his tone was a little patronizing. Not that it was unexpected from a person his age. She merely shrugged it off and marked down her impression of his defensiveness in her chicken-scratch handwriting.

"Well, video games can provide addictive stimulation, but I think there may be something more to what you're telling me. I can't tell anyone what we discuss here, so you can trust me to say nothing. If it really was just a video game marathon, we'll just move right on then. But if you feel like telling me the truth, I'll be here the whole hour.

"Now then, tell me about your friend."




Yup. Terrible life decisions. While she was surprised and fascinated by the powers this newcomer possessed, Nightingale found that it was increasingly obvious he had not planned out his assault. He certainly had impressive powers for agility and attacking, but they weren't really enough to get him out of this mess. As the interloper found himself in a chase, being shot at from so many people, Nightingale left her perch, using impressive gymnastics to reach the ground quietly and unharmed. One of these days, she'd invest in a damn grappling gun.

She turned on a tracking beacon for the police and put it in the still open crate from earlier, adding another to the truck. Her camera was left on the roof where she knew the police would eventually look for it thanks to years of them working together. Her evidence gathering was forced to come to an end, however, as she threw several sonic devices toward the men firing the guns.

It was as if an explosion had gone off. The hearing and equilibrium of the men caught up in the sonic boom was shot to hell and they were quickly knocked on their asses. The rest had a painful ringing in their ears that made focusing seem very difficult. Those who had managed to avoid it were now looking for a new target. Nightingale descended from the roof of the truck they'd been using and took down the one standing the furthest from the kid by simply landing on him. She was on her feet seconds later as the five remaining guys started to get their wits about them and aimed.

She moved as quickly as she could, desperately trying to avoid their gunfire as she ran full force toward them. In just a moment, she was close enough to one to trip and disarm him, using the large gun as a shield. Before she knew it, she was ramming the next guy, slamming the butt of the gun straight into his face. It was enough for him to go down. The others came very close to hitting her, but she managed to roll over to them and use a stun gun on one of them, throwing another sonic boom at the last guy. He got the full brunt of the impact and was downed in seconds. These guys would recover soon, she she called in the police as soon as she had free hands. She took apart the rest of the guns around her and threw all the pieces to the winds before coming to check on the smokey would-be hero.

Nightingale found him not far away, bleeding in a very worrisome way. He looked pretty young, but it was hard to get a really good look at him in his condition. Instead, she checked his vitals and knelt by his side. "Hey. Wake up," she said, her voice altered by a scrambler she wore on her belt. "I need you to wake up, guy. The police are coming, and I doubt you really want to be here when that happens. Plus there's that whole dying thing you want to avoid..."
 
How did she seem so sure he was lying? Did he give it away somehow? Was he that obvious with it? Delsin frowned just a little, wondering who this woman was, but hooked onto her most recent question as a way to make things just a little less awkward. "My friend? Eugene? Oh, he's cool. A bit nerdy, bit socially awkward, but he has a way with technology, man, like you wouldn't believe. Incredibly smart. He's the son of Dr. Sims -- I think his dad's name is Patrick? Richard? Something like that -- and his mom's some hotshot lawyer too. Dude has intelligence in his genes!"

Delsin chuckled a little bit, surprised by his own glowing description of his closest friend and his family. Delsin only wished he could say the same of his own. Well, at least of his parents. His sister was a cool girl, and Delsin wondered how she was doing. The worry was plain on his face.




The voice that woke him did nothing to ease Wisp's mind. It sounded funny, and certainly like nothing you would want to wake up to after having been shot what felt like a billion times. Wisp smoke dashed back, leaving behind burning heat and the bullets that had been lodged in his body, clinking to the ground. When Wisp reformed, he was upright, crouched low in an offensive position, his left hand held out, burning red hot. Slowly, Wisp gathered the details of the situation around him: all of the bad guys had been taken out, but not by him. They had been defeated by this woman who was in front of him, this glory stealing low-li--- Nightingale!

"What are you doing here?" Wisp asked. "What happened?"

While she answered his questions, Wisp became concerned at the silence in his right ear where the bluetooth was; he could still feel the device in his ear, but Eugene hadn't said anything since the assault began. "Eugene, you there?" Wisp asked, taking his eyes off of Nightingale as he looked towards Eugene somewhere to his right. "Eugene?" His other hand, the one not burning hot, produced his phone from his pocket, which had been shot clean through. With a curse, he returned his attention to the heroine that had indirectly inspired Wisp's decision to become a hero. "You took them out?" He asked.

Sirens could be heard in the distance, getting closer, and that provoked some worry in Wisp.
 
Dr. Lindquist nodded, smiling as Delsin described his friend. Apparently, Eugene was an important person in this young man's life--and intelligence seemed to be something Delsin valued. She would keep that in mind as they went along. Still, she caught the flicker of worry across his face. They would get to that.

"He sounds like a good friend. How did you two meet?"




Nightingale sighed and shook her head as the vigilante literally pulled himself back together, clearly disoriented after what he'd been through. Still, it didn't seem like he'd been wounded, even if what had happened to him had hurt him. In fact, there didn't seem to be much blood at all. What was he made of?

Nightingale was curious about the person who was supposed to be on the other line. She had started to answer his question when he just stopped paying attention to ask about Eugene. Either this was a partner on the ground or somewhere else, but she hadn't seen anyone around here. Then again, she hadn't see him coming either.

She picked up her sonic boom devices as she spoke. "I took them out. It was a lot easier to do than it might have been since they were all firing everything they had at you." She frowned and clipped her sonic devices back to her belt, the sound of sirens telling her it was time to get out.

"Ugh, come with me. We need to get away from here." With that, she grabbed the vigilante's hand and led him toward an alley where she'd kept her bike hidden. Climbing on, she slipped the helmet over her head. "Come on. I'll get you out. You don't want to stick around for the questioning, do you?"

With that, she started the bike and waited for him to make up his mind.
 
"High school," Delsin replied, with a nod. "He was gettin' beat up by some dudes. Apparently, Eugene had realized they were cheating on their tests off of him, so he purposely did really bad on a test to throw them off. They found out, weren't happy. It was very...movie-esque. Anyway, I stepped in and scared the guys off. Took a while for him to warm up to me, cuz let's be honest, nerds and my kind don't really mix."

Delsin wasn't gonna elaborate on what he meant by 'his kind' - (ex)druggies who were more interested in getting high than anything else. Though, if it hadn't been for Eugene, that is where Delsin would still be. Right with his sister.




"Definitely not."

Delsin jumped on the back of the bike, wrapping his arms around her waist. Once they were off, he kept casting furtive glances behind himself, wondering if they were gonna get chased. Eventually, he calmed down enough to talk. "I thought Nightingale worked with the police?"
 
The good doctor picked up on "his kind" and made a note of it. His lack of elaboration was not actually surprising, but she was interested in what he meant by it. She wouldn't be able to get to the root of things in this session--he was much too squirmy for that. Still, Dr. Lindquist was going to attempt to pierce that comfort bubble soon.

"So is it a habit of yours to defend others? Or was there something about Eugene's plight that struck a cord with you?" she asked, watching the young man.



Nightingale waited until her new charge was securely wrapped around her before she revved the engine and took off. "Yes, well, I do. You, on the other hand, do not. And as much as I've built up my name in this town, a wounded individual with strange powers is probably not going to be winning me any points." She practically yelled it to him as they flew down the side-streets.

"I'm guessing you probably don't want to be discovered, so the best thing to do for now is to get you out. I don't know what happened to you, but I'm guessing you'll be disappeared pretty quickly once they figure it out. Hang on."

And with that, she drove into the shadows as a police cruiser's sirens came into range, heading to the zone they'd just left in a hurry, no doubt. "Now I'm going to need you to keep quiet about what happens next..."

They drove on through the city for awhile longer before she reached an abandoned subway station and drove down the ramp along the side of the stairs. She made her way through what seemed like miles of tunneling before stashing the bike and leading her new "friend" toward the entrance to the station they'd come upon.

"Can you walk? Or do you need my help?" she asked, looking him over. He'd lost a lot of blood--or so it seemed, but he was doing a remarkable job of staying awake, and he'd been doing a good job of hanging on as they rode through the city. "I'll get you fixed up and see about getting you wherever you need to be."
 
Delsin watched Dr. Lindquist for a moment. "What do you mean?" he asked. "I don't go around helpin' every nerd too stupid to not get his ass kicked, but there wasn't anything special about Eugene. I just happened to be there." Delsin shrugged, his face showing he genuinely didn't think this was a big deal, and wasn't sure why Lindquist had asked.




Wisp followed Nightingale for a little bit, quiet the whole trip. He felt alone without Eugene in his ear, and he knew since his phone was quite literally shot Eugene would not know where he was. He only hoped that Nightingale didn't plan anything bad for him. She didn't seem like it, however, and he was confused for a second as to why she was asking if he could walk, then offering to fix him up -- was she coming on to him? Then he remembered he had just been turned into proverbial swiss cheese, and that might be concerning for people without his...abilities.

Wisp raised his hands, palm outwards, and shook his head. "No, I am fine," he said. "However, I just need some air. Is there a vent nearby?" He didn't plan on staying here long. He knew the stories of Nightingale, and he was afraid if she found out too much the police would hear that there was a Powered individual who did not get rounded up. That would not work out well for him in the long run. He smiled under his mask at Nightingale, despite her not being able to see it, waiting for her to lead him to a vent.
 
The good doctor leaned back in her chair and adjusted her glasses. "Well, it seems to me that the average person would do one of two things in your situation. They would either feel the need to help, putting themselves in danger--however minimal--or they would feel the need to ignore what was happening in order to preserve themselves. Since you felt the need to help, I was simply wondering what drove you to do so. Regardless of your standards for helping others, it appears as though injustice does not sit well with you--even if it's just two against one."

She thought for a moment about the young man before her. He was trying so hard to keep all of himself to himself, but he was giving away more than he realized. "Care to talk about that more, or should we change the subject again?"



Nightingale raised an eyebrow at the young man's assertion that he was fine. So his strange powers included healing. "I see...Listen, what you did tonight was noble, but it wasn't very bright to go in without an exit strategy. I probably don't understand what you can handle, but I can't imagine being shot like you were was a good experience. Anyway, I can't tell you what to do with your gifts," she said, pausing to gesture at him, "But you should consider starting a little smaller first. Breaking up an arms deal is never easy--alone or otherwise."

With that, she came to the side of her unknown friend and motioned for him to follow her. "There are some vents near the entrance," she said, extending her hand to his in a show of friendship--solidarity even. She may have worked with the police, but she operated outside the law as well. It wouldn't serve either of them to turn him in now.

"I guess if you don't need me, we should part ways," she said, her voice still disguised. "Take care of yourself, stranger."
 
Back
Top Bottom