The cold wind rustled through the leaves in the trees and bushes that lined the pathway of the park. A lone figure sat on one of the wooden benches that were scattered around the park. The soft yellow of the streetlamp glistened off his slicked back black hair, and the metal of his hero suit. His dark green eyes glowed in the shadows that fell across his face.

    “Your late Matthew.” His low voice growled from his chest. He turned his head and looked at the other man that slowly walked into the halo of the lamp.

    “Well unlike you Brandon I don’t have the luxury to walk around at night and not seem suspicious to the police.” Matthew’s soft voice lilted through the air, taking one final step into the light and fully revealing himself. He was a short man with a rumpled grey trench coat that covered his dark blue jeans and black shirt, his bald head was a white fedora, and peeking from below his long coat were two brown leather boots.

    “Do you have the information I was looking for?” Brandon looked at the P.I. with interest.

    “Indeed.” He handed the other man a folder. “I found the mother and daughter. They left Teny while the mother was two months pregnant, and came back three years later, when a relative of the mother died leaving them with a small house. Then when the child was eight she died when she and her mother were caught up in a hero raid on a local gang that had been holding the girl hostage.” Brandon opened the file while Matthew talked. In it was a picture of a smiling woman holding a small child whose face was covered in chocolate. Both were laughing.

The woman had raven looks and piercing blue eyes, her eyes were alight with humor, but below that there seemed to be a dullness, a pained expression, almost as if she was haunted by something from her past.

“I did find out that the mother was abused as a child by her father and mother, before she moved to Teny. Were she joined the League, and then about a year into her training she accused her trainer of raping her. This out of all the information was the hardest to uncover, in fact it was like someone had tried very hard to cover this up, which makes sense especially if they didn’t want people asking why it didn’t go to trial.” Matthew continued as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.

Brandon looked up at him sharply. “Why would it be surprising that it didn’t go to trial?” He growled.

“Well the thing is she had video evidence, and eye witness reports. The only way that her trainer was going to get out of it was to have the whole thing covered up. So the League had it expunged from all police, city and most of the Hero League records. I got this information from one of the eye witnesses who had high enough access to get close to the only records left. So they did, they had just enough time to copy them and then put them back before their supervisor came back.” Matthew looked down at the small scuffs on his boots.

Brandon’s eyes bore into the smaller man. “Why did they step forward now? Why not before?” He stood up and began to pace as he looked from Matthew and the file in his hands.

“They were put on an undercover assignment. Then they were transferred to many different branches, and only got back to Teny three months ago.” Matthew looked at his fingernails. “Was this good enough?” With this he looked at his client.

“Yes it is.” Brandon handed over a thick envelope to him. “Now just keep getting the dirt on the people behind this. Oh and before you go… what was the mother’s name?” Matthew stopped in his tracks.

“Her name? Her name was Morgan Martin, Teny’s own philanthropist sweetheart.” With this parting revelation he exited the light of the lamp and went on his way.

Brandon looked at the picture of the young woman in the folder. “Oh you poor girl life has not been kind to you, and your own.” He shook his head as a single tear slipped down his face. He quickly wiped it away and snapped the file shut and stomped off into the night, and the shadows slowly consumed him.

    ***

Josie stepped out of the shadows where she had been hiding.

‘Why is Morgan Martin important? First Royce, then mother and now a hero? What can she have besides money and power that has everyone in such a stur?’ She stared at the spot where the hero had left.

Her brow furrowed in concentration. ‘I should tell mother. She will want to know about this.’ She nodded decisively, and walked away quickly to the car that was idling by the curb for her.

She slid into the back seat through the door being held for her by the driver. “Take me to my mother, and make it snappy. Stop only when you have to.” She barely looked at the man.

“Yes ma’am.” He closed the door to the backseat, and straightened his jacket before he entered the driver's seat. He looked at his charge in the backseat. Then he started to drive into the night.

***

Josie walked through the automatic glass doors of the underground lab.

The walls were a offwhite, the lights in the ceiling were bright LEDs. Around the room were tables on which were computers, papers and equipment for all types of tests, and one of the walls was one very large screen. Bent over one of these was a woman in a crisp white lab coat, her black hair was half in a bun and the other half fell down her back in curls.

“Mother, I have something intriguing to tell you.” Josie watched as the woman straightened and turned to reveal Doctor Dread’s cold eyes, and black half mask.

“And what would that be Josie?” She inquisitively tilted her head to the side and she swept her hair to the side when it fell into her face.

“Tonight I was meeting an informant at the city park, and on my way back to the car I overheard a very interesting conversation, between a Hero and a P.I. They were talking about a mother and daughter that the hero wanted found.” Here she paused to collect her thoughts.

“And this is interesting how?” Dread began tapping her fingers.

“Well the two most intriguing things were first, her name is Morgan Martin, and the second was that her claims of rape against her hero trainer was covered up so thoroughly.” Josie looked anxiously at her mother, looking for any sign of anger or any other negative emotion. She was poised and ready to flee the room just in case everything went south.

“Josie, forget everything about that conversation, and never mention this to anyone again. We don’t touch anything that has to do with that woman. Is that understood?” Dread looked at her daughter. Her voice left no room for objection, and Josie nodded mutley.

Josie looked at Dr. Dread and her body language, her shoulders were tense, her mouth was in a thin line, and her hands gripped the edge of the table she leaned on.

Josie nodded and turned quickly to leave. “Oh, before you go Josie. What was the hero’s name?” A shiver ran down her back as she stopped dead in her tracks.

“Brandon.” She didn’t look back as she answered the other woman, afraid of what she would see.

“Thank you Josie you may leave now.” With that Josie rushed from the room without looking back.

***

Doctor Dread let a sigh escape her lips as the glass doors slide shut behind Josie’s retreating form. ‘Why does Morgan’s name keep coming up.’

She felt something volatile begin to build and bubble in the pit of her stomach. Her breathing became hot and heavy as her fists clenched, sweat began to trickle down her temples under her black mask. Then from the deepest pits of her heart came a burning need, the need to move, to run, to yell, to scream, to destroy.

She charged out of the lab and ran down the long corridor taking a right at the fork that met her. She ran till she came to her personal hall, there she slowed in only a little just enough to take the turn into her personal gym.

She came to a stop and looked over the room at all the equipment, the treadmills, the elliptical, the rowing machine, the weights, the bikes, and finally her eyes landed on the punching bag, and boxing equipment.

    Slowly she approached the punching bag, took off her pristine white lab coat, and taped her hands.

    She looked at her hands then the bag, and lashed out with a flurry of punches. She paused, stepped back and looked at the punching bag as it swung to and fro, then a sadistically savage smile crept across her ruby red lips. Soon her smile dropped from her lips and was replaced by a farial snarl. She attacked the bag again with even more ferocity then before. As she attacked the bag the burning and bubbling feeling slowly began to abate.

    ***

    James slowly walked down the corridor as he followed the animalistic roars, and the screech of metal as it protested at the abuse it was being put through. He felt trepidation as he neared the room from which the sounds were emanating.

    “Doctor?” He slowly entered the room and saw all of the workout equipment either in ruins or toppled, and through the carnage stood the figure of the woman he feared most. She stood with a foot resting on one of the many punching bags that were stroun across the floor as their insides spilled across the floor, creating an intimidating sight. Her frame shook be it from rage or exhaustion he didn’t know which but all the same it was a sight to behold.

    “Did you need something James? Because if not you might become my new sparring partner for interrupting. Me while I relax.” Her voice was steady despite how her body quivered.

    “Ma’am the League raided one of our bases.” He flinched back as he heard her sharp intake of breath.

    “What exactly did they find? What would cause them to raid one of our bases?”

    “They must have put up a stakeout and seen you coming and going from the base.” James watched the Doctor with wary eyes. He held his breath as he waited for her to process all the information, ready to bult at the slightest indication of rage.

    “Well then James, I do believe that it is time for me to investigate the damages that have been left to my property.” She walked to her lab coat, kicking anything on the floor that got in her way. She lifted it up, brushed off all the dust that had settled onto it and then put it on.

    She started to walk out of the room, but paused. “Well James? Are you coming?” She then continued without waiting for a response. Her long raven locks fluttered behind her tall frame as she prowled down the corridor to the garage.

    In that moment James made the difficult decision of staying behind until she no longer acted like a predator waiting to pounce on its unsuspecting prey.