I walked angrily up the stairs of the apartment building. I didn’t feel like talking with Rigby today, it seemed like a social interaction I could live without. I felt at my ribs as I trudged each step. I was gonna need to delve into my bag of goods I had to retrieve after the attack. I wish I had realized it was left behind before making it halfway home, now that I was later than usual Ben might have made it home by now. 

I turned my key in the lock and walked into the room. I listened and heard light breathing from Ben’s room, sleeping. I made my way into the kitchen and found a glass and a jug of milk and started to pour.

“Strong bones, adding it to the list,” Ben said behind me. I tried not to jump, failed, then tried not to wince at the sudden pain in my chest. The sting dissipated and I turned to him while taking a sip.

“You bring someone home?” I asked, still hearing the breathing in the other room. 

“I might have, you go on a ten mile run or something?” He asked. “You seem tired,”

He walked forward and retrieved another glass for himself and poured milk into it.

“Yeah, I just had to clear my head. I struck out today,” I lied.

He nodded and gulped a fourth of his glass.

“Bummer. Maybe next time try to make it in before dark,” He chugged most of the liquid down and patted my shoulder. I recoiled slightly, to which he raised his hands in surrender.

“Sorry, still getting used to that,” I said.

“You don’t got nothing to be sorry for, kid,” He said, finishing the beverage. “Maybe I’ll have big muscles like yours now, eh?”

I shook my head and smiled.

“Woah, see that?” He pointed at my face. “That is what I like to call progress, my friend.”

“I think you might be killing your progress just a smidge,” I made a gesture with my fingers like I was measuring a pea. He walked back towards the hallway after setting his glass in the sink.

“I’m serious about the ‘before dark’ thing, I don’t wanna give you a curfew,” He joked after shutting the door behind him. I finished my drink and went into my bedroom, listening out for a sneaky Ben to come and check on me before bed. He didn’t, thank God, so I dug into my bag for bandages. I found a large, wide, roll of gauze in the bottom of the bag and started to wrap it around my chest. I felt around the left side of my chest and listened closely as I breathed. My ribs grinded against each other as I inhaled, and then once again when I exhaled. If I didn’t have powers I would have been in a lot of pain. I felt at my right side and recognized the familiar feeling of string. Raymond had done a shoddy stitching job on the gash that the assailant left.

I clenched my fist and felt a rush of frustration rise up in my throat. My phone dinged from across the room, an unknown number had sent me a text message.

Get some sleep, big day tomorrow. -R

 

I arrived at the Lodge. I’d heard of the place before, but never been. I walked in, slowly rolling up the sleeves on my hoodie and inspecting the place for Raymond. He sat in a small booth to the left of the door. It was a lot closer than I thought it would be.

“Bit of a suspicious spot, don’t you think?” I asked, sitting across from him.

“Actually, the last place anyone is going to eavesdrop is right next to the door. Plus, all the degenerates are at the bar,”

“Probably find a lot of degenerates in this place,” I muttered.

“Funny, considering your girlfriend frequents this place,”

“She’s not my girlfriend, and what does that have to do with anything?” I said.

“What can I get for you guys?” A man said as he walked forward. He leaned against the wall behind Raymond’s booth seat and waited for our answer.

“Water for me,” I said, glaring at Raymond.

“You guys have eggs?” Ray asked.

“Sure do,” He answered, seeming to take a mental note. “Want a drink with that or are we feeling psychotic today?”

The man chuckled a bit and Raymond smirked. He shook his head at him and the guy started to walk away. He started towards the bar, which was when I stopped looking at him. I heard his neck turn and his eyes dart from Raymond, to me, then back to Raymond.

“What do you want with me today?” I asked him.

“We are going to be looking into our magnet man problem,” He said.

“How are we going to do that?”

I listened closely in the kitchen for the one who took our order. I heard a phone get pulled off the hook and buttons get pressed. The phone rang and somebody on the other line answered. 

“It better be important, I’m working on something for the boss,” A scruffy voice answered.

“That guy asking about the Darkest is back with someone that fits the bill, either you get down here or some of your guys,”

I looked at Raymond who raised a brow.

“You hear that?” I asked.

“Yup,” He said as he stood and walked out the front door. I followed suit and continued down the street with him. I flicked my arms out and my sleeves fell onto my wrists.

“What’s the plan now?” I asked. “I hope being in there wasn’t important,”

“It wasn’t, I just wanted the eggs. Got a list of places I gotta cross off,” He joked.

“What do they know?”

“They know that you might be a vigilante, why would they send some of their guys?”

“They work for the magnet guy,”

“That is most likely. It seems like a huge coincidence that I noticed something odd the same day that the attack happened. I met the owner there yesterday. Guy had an irregular heart beat, made me uneasy,”

“What does an irregular heartbeat have to do with anything?” I questioned.

“It was enough to bring about suspicion, and I was right might I add,”

“You got lucky, congratulations,”

Two men walked towards us on the sidewalk, their heart rates were irregular as well, ready for a fight. They eyed us down and acted as if they were going to pass us but then stopped and nodded. They turned towards us and Raymond and I twisted to face them quickly. One had a leather jacket, buzz cut, and a hooked nose. I took no interest in the other as Ray had his eye and was ready to fight him. I would have to trust him, otherwise I probably couldn’t take both of these goons.

Mine lurched forward with a jab and I dodged to the left and uppercut around his arm and into his jaw. I put my palms on his back and kneed his stomach. I clenched my fists into the leather and spun him into the second assailant who was in a headlock. Raymond jumped out of the way as they collided. 

I nodded at him and his head jerked back to where we came from. I looked as well after hearing more footsteps than I could count at the time. Six people had run outside from the bar and from the sound of it there were more behind them. Raymond started towards an alley and I pursued him. If my ears weren’t lying to me, so did the whole crowd of men. We cut into a separate alley that led to a drop-off. A small cliff with a building neighboring it. I watched as Raymond picked up the pace and broke into a sprint. I did the same, once again trusting him when I shouldn’t.

Great pain spread across my chest with each step. I thought away the pain up until the moment I jumped off the edge towards the building with Raymond. He leapt gracefully and rolled once his feet landed safely. I did the same, my roll being a little more clumsy. He

continued to run and hopped from one roof to another. I kept up, but it was getting increasingly hard to run with the ringing in my ears.

My breathing was ragged as we continued to the edge of the building. Five feet below the edge was a fire escape, and Raymond dropped down to it quickly. I slipped down and gripped at my chest. 

“Your stitches ripped,” Ray said as he reached towards my side. I stepped back from him and into the railing. I felt at my side and sure enough, I could hear the blood oozing from the wound. I peeled the hoodie and shirt from my midsection and grimaced. It was recent, so probably from the jump. Ray reached into his back pocket and pulled out some twine and a needle.

“You keep sewing supplies on you?” I asked.

“Only when somebody near me has stitches,” He said. “Let me stitch you up,”

I closed my eyes and nodded as he came forward and pushed the curved needle into my skin. I thought away the pain, and it went away quickly.

“You need to pay more attention,” Ray remarked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I questioned.

“You didn’t notice your stitches ripping, you didn’t hear the SWAT team at the hotel, and you didn’t hear the car coming yesterday until it slammed into our magnet man,”

“So I get a little in the moment, what's the big deal?”

“It’s gonna get you killed,” He said.

I thought about it, and he wasn’t wrong. I did get carried away sometimes and quit paying attention.

“Should I pay attention to every minute detail?” I asked. “Sounds exhausting,”

“Everything is exhausting until you work that muscle to the point that it becomes clockwork. As special as we are, that part of us is still human. The force of habit,”

“How old are you?” I divulged. He tied off the string.

“18, if that matters,”

“Tells me a little bit,” I smirked.

“I prefer to judge by intellect rather than age,”

“I prefer to judge by both,” I said. Raymond chuckled, biting the excess string. 

We slowly made our way down to the ground, dropping from one story to reach the ground from the fire escape without pulling down the ladder. Once we made it, Ray flicked open his vibrating phone.

“Damn,” he exclaimed. “Robbery two blocks from here,”

“I brought my bag, I could change,”

“We’re in the slabs, take this earpiece while I run home. I would rather help where I’m useful,”

I grasped the small rubbery object and turned away from him to insert it. It fell into my ear easily and molded to stay in place. I turned to see Ray but he was already on the move and had left.

“Too slow” he said into the earpiece.

“Where was the robbery at?” I asked.

“Two blocks north, get dressed and head that way”

I opened my backpack and began ripping out my clothes.

Lyla

I had driven to the Slabs once again, expecting Raymond to be home. Instead I was greeted with nothing and was left to sit on the front step with both hands on my chin. I glanced around the dirty neighborhood, discarded trash and broken bottles littered the cracked street. A group of children played in their front yard a few houses down. One kicked a ball at another, two others played in the dirt behind them.

I found myself staring at them and observing them closely. It didn’t seem like their parents were watching them, which broke my heart. I had heard stories of what people in the Slabs would do instead of raising their family. I didn’t like coming to that conclusion but there was only one other possibility which would be their parents at work.

They reminded me of James, which made me smile. My mind wandered to the night before when James almost kissed me. It would’ve been perfect, and the rest of the night paled in comparison. If I hadn’t gone chasing that stupid siren, I could have put it behind me and let myself live a little. My smile went away and I sighed audibly. I didn’t know why I couldn’t drop the Darkest, something about him lured me in. Maybe I just like the reckless type, I thought.

Before I could finish the thought, Raymond ran into my vision. He had sprinted to his house and fumbled his keys as he went. He nodded at me and slinked back to the door. He unlocked it and swung the door open.

“Quickly, lets go!” He said. I hustled in and he shut the door behind me.

We shuffled forward to the desk, this time he didn’t seem to mind me standing over his shoulder.

“What’s the problem?” I asked, gazing around the room. “And where is he?”

He noticed the gruff in my voice but shook it off. He typed a few things and some surveillance footage popped up on a screen. A jewelry store with four armed robbers. 

Raymond touched his right ear and spoke. “You close?”

“I’ve been outside for five minutes, where were you?” A voice said from the speakers on the desk. It was garbled and distorted. 

“There are two entrances as far as I can tell, one in the back and one up front. The only problem is that someone would notice either one. They’ve got hostages,”

“And there’s too many cops out front,” The Darkest chimed. 

“I don’t suppose you want to shimmy through the vents?”

“Never in a million years,”

It surprised me how fluid the conversation went. It seemed as if the two had worked together before. I already didn’t trust Raymond, now I didn’t know if I ever would. He kept a lot from me.

I decided against bringing it up and kept watching the situation. The assailants were cleaning out the cases full of gems, diamonds, rubies, you name it. One controlled the crowd, another kept watch behind a case by the door. His gun barrel trained at the handle. One of the

ones stealing the gems picked up a burner phone from his back pocket. He held it up to his ear and began to speak.

Raymond’s tapping was hard to not pay attention to. He typed a line of code and a program with sound wavelengths popped up in front of the video. 

“What terms would you like us to meet for two hostages?” An authoritative voice spoke.

“If you don’t clear out immediately, our boss will be here in less than five minutes. Should give you enough time to think about what your life is worth,”

The man dropped the phone and crushed it under his boot. Ray clicked a few buttons and then dragged some files into another program. A progress bar began on the other monitor. Surveillance from the entire city played at double speed in different instances until one of the clips stopped and played. A man with the same stature stood next to another. His face was simple, tough. His jaw could cut steel and his voice was deep and bitter.

“You have it?” He asked the man beside him, keeping his gaze away from him.

The other pulled a small manilla envelope from his jacket and handed it to him. He pocketed it and walked away. A red square appeared over his face before the video paused. A mugshot pop-up appeared with the criminal’s name.

Dalton Schwartz. His buzz cut and vacant expression was the same as the video.

“How did you do that?” I asked.

“Vocal and facial recognition,” Raymond smirked. “Wrote the program last night,”

I was impressed, but I suppressed it when I reminded myself of my distrust.

“These guys work for the magnet guy,”

“We really need a name for that guy,” I said.

“The lead man is named Dalton, might be helpful to you,” Ray mentioned.

“Got it,” The hero said.

The armed men were now aiming their guns simultaneously at the front door. The crowd control man had his pointed at the six or seven hostages. A black figure slowly made his way to the three by the door. He hid behind a case and peered around the corner. He went around the case and continued closer. The enemies hadn’t noticed him yet. A cold, nervous bead of sweat went down my back and sent chills down my spine.

The situation seemed under control, they hadn’t spotted the Darkest yet. Suddenly, a phone chimed through the vigilante’s earpiece. 

“Crap,” he hissed a whisper. The events that followed went so quickly that I barely registered it. The Darkest stood quickly and dove over another row of cases as the three armed gunmen pointed their weapons at him and sprayed. The bullets sunk into the case that he had jumped over and splintered wood and glass sprinkled the air around it.

I could feel my breathing start to speed up. Raymond sat and watched with his hands clasped together at his mouth. I bit my tongue and waited.

“If I didn’t leave my ringer on, you would so be out cold by now,”

The men pointed their guns frantically about the store, as if the voice was coming from the sky. I let out a breath, not realizing I had held it for too long.

“He’s in the vents,” Raymond smiled as he muttered.

“Our boss wants to speak with you,” Dalton taunted. “He’s interested in someone with your skill set,”

“Oh, Dalton, you think that I’ll actually consider that?”

“Worth a shot,” He shrugged and aimed at the ceiling. He sprayed at a grate and the room went silent. I looked behind the man’s shoulder and a black figure was behind him.