Grey Area Ch. 3
Rest
Sachel woke from a start. Looking around, she found herself alone in an apartment building in Metropolis. It took her a moment to recognize it as the apartment she had recently acquired and shared with fellow Justice League deputy, Lexicon.
Sachel sat up and winced as a sharp pain racked her side. Damn, she thought, Bane must have cracked a couple of ribs. Sachel started. Wait a minute. How the hell did I get here!?
Sachel heard the door close, and her friend and roommate Lexicon walked into the room, removing her v-domino mask and placing it on the table. Lexicon was a small girl with brown hair that she kept back in a braid. Her costume was a black jumpsuit with green vine-like lines running throughout it, creating almost circuit-like pattern across her body. Her gloves and boots were green with thorn-like protrusions coming from the sides, and a black cape with green trim hung from her shoulders.
"Hey there, angel face," Lexicon said flashing a smile, "How are we feeling this morning?"
Sachel groaned, "What the hell happened?"
Lexicon's smile faltered, "When the GCPD worked their way into the Cape Carmine Lighthouse they found you next to Bane. After they secured him, they called the League, the League called me, I came and got you, brought you here, nursed you back to health."
Sachel looked down and found her chest stripped down to her sports bra and wrapped in bandages. With Lexicon being a lesbian, Sachel imagined the pleasure it gave her to be able to remove her roommates clothes, even in such dire circumstances.
Lexicon smiled, "Speaking of which, now that you're awake, I can give you this." She reached into the medicine cabinet and produced a bottle filled with a neon green liquid. While the healing arts were more Lexicon's turf than hers, Sachel could not help but feel uneasy, "Lexi, what the hell is that?"
Lexicon smiled, "Relax, it's just a couple of herbs mixed with a Soder Cola. It won't fix you up completely, but it will make it hurt a lot less."
While not exactly convinced, Sachel gave her friend the benefit of the doubt and downed the whole thing. It tasted terrible, but Sachel felt her ribs feeling better almost instantly, and allowed herself a mental sigh of relief. After finishing the bottle, Sachel got out of bed and reached for her gear, only to find it nowhere to be found.
"Lexi," she said, "Where's my stuff?"
Lexicon had had moved into the bathroom and was now changing out of her costume and into an evening dress. "What stuff?" she said innocently.
"Oh, nothing important," Sachel said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Just my coat, my wings, and my weapons. It's really hard to do my job without them."
"Relax, angel face," Lexicon laughed, exiting the restroom in a green evening dress, putting her favorite earrings in, "Superman told me that he wanted you to take the weekend off so you could heal properly, and I didn't want you to spend good rest time out on the streets again, so I hid your stuff. Don't worry; you'll get it back when you're cleared for duty again."
Sachel grimaced inside. She didn't like "rest time". Rest time allowed her mind to wander, and she didn't like the places it liked to wander too.
Lexicon smiled, "Cheer up, Sachel, I heard that Monokrome got the weekend off, too. Maybe you could go down to Gotham and pay him a visit."
Sachel didn't need to be a genius to figure out what Lexicon was implying, "For the last time, there is nothing going on between Monokrome and me."
Lexicon did not look convinced, "Sure, that's why you flirt with him whenever he's around, and take every Gotham mission you can get your hands on."
Sachel's expression yielded nothing. Lexicon sighed, "Well, whatever, just no crime fighting, and no sulking around the apartment, go out and have some fun. You look like you could use it."
Sachel nodded and motioned towards Lexicon's apparel, "And what about you, where is the great Lexicon going to be up to tonight?"
Lexicon smiled, "The great Lexicon is going out. The Question managed to hook me up with this girl in Magic, I'm about to go meet her for coffee."
Sachel smiled back, "Should I leave the apartment for you?"
Lexicon giggled, "Don't be ridiculous, this is just a first date."
"Do I need to remind you of the stakeout at the Metrodome?"
"Shut up."
Sachel smiled, "Ok, well, have fun."
Lexicon, walked towards the door, "I think I will," she said with a smile, "Don't wait up for me, and remember, get out of the apartment and have some of fun of your own."
Sachel shook her head as the door closed. For such a sweet girl, Lexicon could be such a pest.
In a residential neighborhood in the slums of Gotham, Monokrome moved stealthily into his own apartment. He moved to the back of the apartment where he moved aside a bookcase to reveal a hidden room where he kept all of his stuff. Was it a little cliche? Yeah. Did it work any less because of it? Not really. Inside the room was a small desk with a computer resting on it that was connected to the Watchtower mainframe as well as his communicator, as well as a wardrobe where he stored all of his gear. It was no Batcave, but hey, what are you gonna do?
Monokrome opened the wardrobe and started changing out of his outfit. He removed his helmet to reveal a man with short black hair and a full trimmed beard. He placed his on top of the rack and took a minute to admire it. Of all his trophies and accomplishments, the helmet was the one he was most proud of. The helmet was a gift from Batman himself, a badge of honor given to those who garnered immense respect in the eyes of the Dark Knight. To Richard Grare, no higher honor could be given.
Richard finished changing out of his costume and sat at the desk. While his mind would rather be out fighting the good fight, his body was more than happy for the reprieve, so when Nightwing had relayed the orders for his vacation, his mind gave in to his body and no argument was given. There was one thing he needed to do before retiring for the night. Logging in to the Watchtower's network, Richard accessed the database of known exobyte villains. While it wasn't as much of a danger as it used to be, due to the large number of superheroes about, Richard did his best to keep his identity a secret. When he had been granted the exobyte abilities, only Gordan had been told of his dual life. Even Sachel was unaware of who he truly was, even though he was sure Batman had figured it out from the get go. So how did the villain who attacked him know who he was? After a few moments of searching, Monokrome found the villain in the database. His file didn't reveal much. He was new to the territory, only surfacing a few nights ago, and seemed to be working for the Joker. No real name, no known abilities, no nothing. The only useful information that Richard was able to find was that the villain worked under the name of 'Vendettuh', and that wasn't really useful at all.
Richard sighed and closed down the computer. Whoever this guy was, he had been causing problems on the streets for longer than a few nights. It may not have been in Gotham, but somewhere. Exobytes or no, no one was that good without experience.
Deciding to give it up for the night, Monokrome slipped out of his makeshift hideout and grabbed a beer before settling down in his recliner. It wasn't long before the veteran cop made rookie superhero was off into another place. Being a superhero in Gotham could really take it out of a guy.
Sachel wandered the darkened streets of Metropolis dressed in a Green Lantern hoodie and black jeans. Despite her best efforts, she was having a difficult time enjoying her time off. Her first attempt was to try some of the local nightclubs that Lexicon seemed to enjoy so much, those that weren't infested with supervillains, that is. That, of course, was a complete disaster. It seemed so interesting when Lexicon described it. You could walk in, have a few drinks, dance your heart out, hit on a few guys, the whole nine yards. What she seemed to fail to mention, however, was that the drinks were expensive, the music was terrible, and all the guys seemed to be nothing but a bunch of idiots who had just one thing on their minds. So, wandering the streets again, Sachel racked her brain for things to fill her agonizing time off.
As if a response to her thoughts, it started to rain. While most of the residents scrambled for cover at the nearest building, or opened umbrellas, Sachel merely stopped and looked up with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. She liked the rain. There was something about the cold pitter-patter on her face that seemed to wash her troubles away. Opening her eyes a crack, Sachel looked longingly at the clouds, wishing in that moment to be skimming among them, free as a bird. Unfortunately, Lexicon still had her wings hidden away with the rest of her equipment. Sachel smiled sadly. Not for the first time, Sachel wished to return to the time before Brainiac, before Nathan. To go back to the time where she could fly without the need for machines, or magic, or any other kind of outside aid, and just fly for as long as she wanted for as far as she wanted. Those were the days she wished for.
Sachel hung her head, a small tear forming in her eye. She could wish for such days all she wanted, but as hard as she might wish otherwise, those days were gone. She had made sure of that herself.
Sachel kept walking, and eventually found herself at the steps of church. Usually such a building did nothing but remind of her own mistakes, but today, she felt irresistibly drawn to it.
Unbeknownst to the Angel of Tech, a lone figure watched her from atop the rooftops. A few blocks away, an imposing man in red and black demonic armor, a red tattered cape, and a spiked helmet watched the hero's troubled venture.
When theology professor and closet Satanist, Jason Malum, had been targeted by the exobytes, they gave him more than the ability to summon fire or the speed of a lightning bolt. They had also given him a certain perception that allowed him to see past the facades and personas that people shielded themselves from society with. He saw who they truly were, all of their strengths, and all of their weaknesses. Many assumptions he had about the true nature of people were destroyed the day he was granted this new sight, but when he looked at this new hero, what he saw truly astounded him. Behind the jokes and flirtations, beneath all the playfulness and childish attitudes, the villain who called himself Beelzebub saw a woman wise far beyond her years, one who seemed both humbled by time yet broken by the unimaginable guilt that all but consumed the young woman.
Such a strange creature interested Beelzebub, but what truly had him fixated on the young hero was something she kept hidden beneath everything else. Something buried very deep, beneath all the black and re pain and suffering, beneath the layers and layers of burning guilt, even beneath the black and white speckled attraction she felt from time to time, there glowed a secret so surprising and unimaginable that Beelzebub wasn't even sure what in Hell's tarnation it even was. He had watched her for quite a while trying to figure out what it was that shined so brightly in the young woman's heart. It wasn't until Sachel walked into the church did Beelzebub finally know what it was, and it was in that moment that the giant penny had dropped in his mind did Beelzebub realize that it would cause him no greater pleasure than to destroy this hero.
