Queens, New York.
As with just about anywhere in the 5 main Boroughs of NYC: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Bronx, NYPD officers were everywhere. Including in your home.
Or in this case, the home of the one and only superpowered High School nerd, Len Kagamine. Of course she wasn't here for him, specifically him anyway, she was here because she had brought the twins home from a Manhattan Police station. The two were answering questions regarding the mugger who attacked them in West Village. However Len smashed his whole arm in when he attacked Rin, so that warranted a questioning.
Thankfully it only took Three Hours to interrogate and process the info regarding the incident, about an hour for every account in this case. Rin's, Len's and the Bank Robber gone mugger known only as "unnamed person."
Luka was a NYPD Officer, yes, however she wasn't a Manhattan Police Officer, she was in fact situated in Queens. When she heard the call for assistance to stop a heist in progress in Times Square, dispatch sent her in since she was right next to the Queensboro bridge anyway, so it wasn't too long a drive. She wasn't the only out of precinct office to arrive either, a couple of them were even from Bronx.
Luka had to return to duty in Queens after the whole heist ordeal and went about doing her usual thing: traffic stops, answering domestics, waiting on her newbie partner to buy her a donut. However she felt guilty about leaving the two stranded in Manhattan, so she waited at the train station for Len and Rin to arrive and drive them home. She was fortunate to clock out around the same time they got off the train. She drove her own personal vehicle down there (a blue '99 Chevy Impala) because, number one, she didn't want to intimidate any other drivers on the road, number two actually can't because of the sheer amount of officers that would need that car more.
After that had concluded, Luka took the liberty of driving them home. It was a simple drive home in Queens. She more or less just asked questions about the interview and whatnot. Nothing too extravagant. When they got home that's when the plot really advances, which kinda takes us to now.
"No Len, I'm not doing it." Rin contested.
"I'm just saying, if you can do it. I'll pay you." Len continued to dare her on.
"I'm not taking Luka's taser." Rin told him again.
"Chicken." Len laughed.
"Maybe you should do it."
"I could, but that would ruin the fun of you doing it." Len replied.
Rin just stopped when she heard Luka come in. "What are you guys talking about in here?" She asked genuinely.
"Forget it, I'm gonna watch TV." Rin sighed walked into the living room, leaving Len alone with the police officer. Suddenly he felt threatened for no particular reason. His powers weren't sensing anything right now, but he just felt scared around cops.
"What were you guys talking about?" Luka asked him again. She still wore her patrol uniform and cap.
He stopped to think of an answer, but was put on the spot so he had no idea what to reply with. "Ummm. Getting dinner?"
"Well aren't you glad I'm here?" Luka smiled.
Wait. Why the hell is she still here? "Ummm, Luka do you mind if I ask why you're here, shouldn't you be home. Or, beating up a homeless minority."
"Very funny Len…" Luka growled. "No I'm here because I want to be, and you two let me in." Luka told him.
"Well then leave." Len told her trying to shoo her away.
"You're not the owner of the house." Luka told him smiling.
"Well neither are you."
"Yet."
Len was about to respond when he realized he had nothing to reply to that with. He was stuck at that. "Uh." He thought for a second but then gave up. "Alright. What do you want?"
"The reason I'm here is the question you're looking for. And the answer is." She paused. "Dinner."
What does she mean by dinner. "So that means?"
"What do you think it means?" Luka asked him.
Len was more puzzled than a drunk guy in a mirror maze. "Are you buying us food, making it, having us make you it?" Len asked her. The officer looked at him like he was stupid.
"Maybe Rin's right, maybe you are just that stupid." Luka told him crossing her arms.
"Ummm… so you're getting us dinner?" Len asked.
"Yes Len. You two are getting dinner tonight." She told him.
Suddenly his, eyes lit up with excitement. He was filled with joy to know that he'd get some actual home made dinner for once. It wouldn't be the dirt tasting slop that his mom used to make and it wouldn't be the TV dinners they had been surviving on for the last week. Actual dinner.
"That's awesome. What are we having?"
"I don't know, gotta assess the situation. But it's gonna be good." She told him.
Len felt overjoyed to know he was getting food.
"Now go behave and watch TV with your sister." Luka told him.
Without missing a beat. "Yes ma'am." Len rushed into the living room with his sister and sat down next to her. She was watching Fox News, and the Heist was being discussed.
She suddenly looked confused as to Len's sudden change in attitude. "Okay..So what's gotten into you?" She asked him.
"Luka's making dinner." Len told him. Suddenly Rin's face lit up too.
"Holy crap, legit?"
"Yeah, we get to have real dinner for once."
Rin basically cheered at the thought. She raised her hands to the sky and let out a woo. "Finally. I hate those stupid TV dinners."
Len grabbed the remote and tuned it to whatever channel was on at the time. It's the news. They were busy discussing the recent heist that went down and the suspects involved. He changed the channel because he already knew all he needed to know, he was there. After fliping through them like a crazy man, it occurred to him that they all seemed the same. Mostly reality TV and drama's. That bored him so he turned on Netflix. Figured there'd probably be something on there to watch.
He sighed. "Damnit, there's gotta be something on TV."
Run chuckled. "I guess that's where you're wrong Lenny boy." She told him. Len just groaned as he rose from the chair. Rin turned her attention to the TV, looking for something to watch.
Len honestly didn't care about what was on TV, he just wanted to occupy time until Luka had finished making dinner. He just didn't want to sit in his room the entire time to do it. He dropped the remote and started pacing around the living room.
Rin noticed his anxious state. "You are too excited to eat Luka's food, like, anime level excited." Len of course ignored her and continued to go around in circles. Rin sighed. "Whatever. I'm gonna find something to watch, so if you don't mind."
Len heard her change the channel, but didn't pay any mind to it. He merely walked and waited, like a good Marine, he's standing by to stand by.
To Len, on a subconscious level anyway, it was less about the food and more about the thought that someone out there would care for them in a way that only their mother did. Even in such a screwed up place such as New York, someone was still good. Of course the food was primarily what excited conscious Len.
As Rin cycled through the channels, she came upon CNN, as usual. They were reporting on the heist, as the last station was. Rin sighed as they merely repeated the same thing as Fox, and CBS, and ABC. There wasn't much different about this, so it's understandable than Rin almost missed the change in topics.
"And in other news, police have identified a body found in the remains of the Hudson River Docks." The CNN reported started. "Investigators have uncovered the remains of Damion Wilson, better known as Slade." She continued to report as Rin turned to Len.
"Len I get the feeling you are, and will remain, the sloppiest moron on the planet."
"I didn't do anything." Len defended himself still going around the living room.
"Really?" Rin questioned. She turned it up a bit. "Because to me it looks like police found the dude you killed in the docks."
Len stopped to see what was happening on the news. The woman continued to report on the incident. "Slade is believed to be the killer of the four Anderson scientists last week."
…
Somewhere, a few blocks down.
The reporter continued to speak. "Police have no leads as to how the collapse occurred and how it may be connected to his death, but they see certain they are related."
Miku sat back in amazement. Somehow, that murderous assassin was whacked by a building falling on him. She sighed to herself. "Well. Now what?" She mumbled to herself, realizing there was not much left to do anymore. She had already read through most of the comics she had bought, so what was there left to do.
Her mom was busy tonight and her brother was still in Afghanistan. Boring, but not impossible to deal with. She grabbed her phone, figuring she'd call someone up and talk for a while. She pulled up her contacts list and searched through them. She texted her boyfriend first.
Hey Alec.
She started.
What? I have homework to do.
Miku felt repulsed by that sentence. He normally was nicer when texting, but he was probably being bothered by his sister for something.
Is your sister around? She asked, trying to confirm her suspicion.
Just broke my Xbox actually.
She sighed.
Sorry. Any plans tonight or tomorrow?
My mom's bringing me to Staten island.
"Shit." She mumbled to herself.
Alec continued to text her. Try someone else, maybe Rin?
The news report continued.
"Police are still looking for any leads. They ask that if you have any credible information, to bring it to the police for a reward."
Miku looked to the TV. "Police." She thought to herself. She then cycled through her contacts for a bit before coming to Len and Rin's contact info. She had Rin's because she was one of her friends, and Len because she imputed his number onto the "blocked call" list. She was going to call or text Rin, but her phone was a little messed up and sometimes got phone calls and sometimes didn't.
That's AT&T for you.
Of course there were rumors that Len and Rin were living with a cop now, only rumors, but credible enough for her to feel empathic.
She sighed also remembering that his mother just died too. The thought of that was still kinda fresh in her mind, actually kinda fresh in everyone's minds. She realized it was probably impossible to
"Damnit." She mumbled to herself. She knew she shouldn't, but she was going to anyway. She figured she text Len for a while, even I'd only to get in touch with Rin. See if he had anything interesting to say.
Hey Len.
She texted. She waited a few moments basically expecting an instantaneous response considering she was dealing with Len. Of course a few minutes had passed before she got a response of any kind. She had just about given up by the time Len had responded.
Yeah.
His first text from Miku and all he could reply with was, yeah. Kinda sad, but nonetheless a response. She texted back.
Are you or Rin doing anything tomorrow?
A few more moments pass before he replied.
Rin's going to the movies.
She sighed.
What is she going to see?
Len replied.
I think that Avengers movie.
Miku sat back for a moment with a huge smile. She liked that idea, sure liked it so much she had unintentionally sent her next text without thinking about the ramifications it might have.
Hell yeah, I want to see that movie.
She sent that without having first thought it through. She tried to delete the message before Len saw it but realized it was hopeless.
Len responded in a predictable fashion. The Avengers? I can come and get you if you want.
"How that hell do you plan on doing that without a driver's licence?" Miku asked herself.
She sighed and texted back. No. I don't want to go she stopped before continuing. right now.
After a few moments Len responded. Are you a closet otaku? Miku sighed to herself returning Len to the blocked list.
…
Back at the Kagamine household, Len just finished texting Miku apparently. His last text seemed sudden, "Are you a closet otaku?" That in itself was kinda strange, but he was genuinely interested now.
A little while ago, she said something at school that would seem suspicious enough, about how she's "not" obsessed with superheroes like Len was ever though he said nothing about being obsessed with anything. It sounded strange enough for him to want to investigate.
Whatever was the case, it was reason enough for him to investigate. If the possibility that he could get with Miku existed, even the tiniest most insignificant bit, he was gonna take it. Besides that, it would be a few minutes before Luka was done making dinner, so he might as well occupy his time by abusing his powers.
Len put his phone into his pocket and quickly grabbed his jacket. Rin noticed his sudden move towards the door and tried asking what he was doing.
"Len, what the hell are you doing? Weren't you the one who wanted all of Luka's food.
"Yeah, I'll get to that later, for now I have somewhere to be." he explained trying to hurry along.
"Where you idiot?" Rin asked getting fed up with Len.
"I'll explain later, if Luka asks, I ran to the gas station to buy a Pepsi." He explained running out the door. Rin sighed realizing he was gonna be gone for a bit.
Outside, Len hopped up on top of the house and looked down the street. He was able to sense the presence of plenty of people nearby him. He could feel Luka's soul, Rin's, the couple next door's. He couldn't really feel anything past a few blocks, but he knew if he moved he would.
He bunny hopped over to the roof of the adjacent house, making sure no one could see him. He looked around to see if he remembered where Miku lived.
She was on the bus the first few days of school, but then her mom started driving her to school everyday. He remembered that she was on before him so he knew where to start.
Len began his trek down the road until he sensed he presence. He remembered what she felt like at school, so he just had to keep an eye out for her aura. He began to move along the backwards route of his school bus, hopping from roof to roof, avoiding super running or gliding as that would give off his signature blue aura.
He continued down the road, passing by plenty of people and cars. To most he merely looked like a really fast free runner. As he passed by houses, he kept sensing some people he recognized from school, and some things he recognized as evil. He remembered how the mugger from earlier felt and saw similar presences along the road, in many house and many cars. What the hell? He began to wonder to himself. Is this really what is always happening. Are my powers still growing? He asked himself.
He grew up in this hell hole, so he even he felt sorry for it. But at the same time, he hated living here for that very reason. This whole city was the basically the east coast version of Chicago. Full of corrupt politicians, and hateful people.
Still, the thought that the city he grew up in was as bad as he thought scared him more than he was letting on. From what he could tell, his powers were constantly growing. He was becoming able to tell different life forces apart and could become very proficient at superheroing his way around.
That was likely the tip of the iceberg, there's no telling what could happen in a few years, maybe even a week. Who knows. All Len knew, at that moment anyway, was that something had to be done.
As he followed along the route of the school bus, he soon found a presence he recognized. Miku's. He slowed himself down to a subtle jog before finally stopping.
"Is that her?" He wondered to himself. He crept onto the roof of the house he believes to be Miku's. He slowly makes his way over to the window to peek inside.
He poked his head against the top of the window the same way Kotori from Love Live "Kotobombs" people. He took a glimpse in to see there was definitely a blue haired girl watching TV in there. Found her. He thought to himself. Now I gotta know if she's really into this stuff.
He figured he'd have to be out of there quick before she spots him. He wasn't wearing his mask so he'd be screwed if he was caught. That and it was incredibly stalker like to just look at someone through their windows like this. Len might have been the furthest thing from a model citizen, or even person in general, but even he had standards.
He looked around her room from his vantage point. There were a few posters on the wall. Just as he figured. Captain America poster here, a few figurines on the wall there. Even the sight of hundreds of comic books on the shelves. Len smiled as he leaned something new, retreating to the roof again, avoiding detection.
"So she does like this stuff?" He thought to himself. He always wanted a chance at dating the cheerleader captain, now He knows how to do it. He'd kill two stones with one bird. He slowly got back to his feet. "If what I've seen is true, then all I have to do is be Miku's hero."
He turned to the New York skyline. The empire state building stood tall above basically everything else being visible, even if only a little bit, from here in queens.
He looked back down to the floor, underneath which was where he saw Miku earlier. He followed her aura go downstairs. He looked around himself, plenty of people whose aura's were not of good intent. But there were also those who were like Miku, innocent, non threatening.
Len took a deep breath. "Even if I can't have her, I'll still be the hero she wants…" be paused before finishing his own personal vow. "I'll be a superhero."
...
Kaito laid in wait in his uncomfortable bed. The mattress he laid on required replacing, parts of the springs underneath were poking through and jabbing him slightly. He would have preferred the end of the day to be relaxing since the whole day prior was another restless, and painful day of tests.
Being pelted by rubber bullets to see if he could dodge them. The answer to that was a pretty simple no. Of course a few other tests had transpired, most of them had been to see what the range of his powers were.
Outside of that, he was merely treated like a lab rat simply because they wanted to know what he was capable of. He was the only one of his kind… that they knew of anyway. It concerned everyone because they all knew that Kaito was capable of so much, which is part of the reason they were trying to gauge how far his powers extended.
Kaito himself was honestly trying to figure out what he could do.
In fact, a few minutes prior, he could swear he saw people walking around outside his room. Which would technically be impossible due to the wall and door blocking the view. It was like he could see their souls. It was weird, but he could still see them without interrupting his normal FOV.
He sighed.
"Damnit." Kaito groaned to himself. He looked around his tiny room. "There's gotta be something to do in here."
Of course that wasn't the question he was hoping to have answered. He merely wanted an answer as to why he was here.
He looked towards the door again and watched a few people walk by. There was something about them that didn't seem right, but he disregarded that. He watched them slowly make their way out of sight.
The mere sight of people walking by was driving him insane. Kaito sighed. "Alright. That's it. I want some answers." he got up from his bed.
He made his way over to the door and investigated it. Nothing to suggest it was alarm protected. He looked around to make sure there was no one else doing their rounds.
No one.
He decided now was the time to act. He took his window of opportunity and started breaking the door down from the hinges. After a few moments of wiggling and tugging, the door came loose. He pulled it clean off and checked his surroundings. No one in the pure white hallway.
"Alright." He said to himself putting the door back. He was outside, now what? He looked down the hallway to where he saw those guys go earlier.
He followed the hallway while crouched down to avoid making too much noise. If being trained by the Navy SEALS has taught him anything, it's how to not get caught doing something. He continued along the walkway until he saw people.
He quickly hid behind a corner as they came closer. The footsteps of the facility workers was loud enough for him to judge their distance. A few years away. Kaito waited until they were basically point blank to strike.
Once they were a few feet from him, he quickly turned the corner a took down both of them in a sudden flurry of punches and grabs, knocking them both down in the process.
Kaito watched the two men hit the floor and proceeded to drag them out of sight before continuing on his way. He followed along the hallway, keeping an eye out for more workers. Surprisingly, most of the
…
The moonlight shone through the window like a spotlight.
…
A/N That took longer than I was hoping. Well luckily for me, now we're getting to the fun parts. The actual superhero parts that you came to see, and it only took… a couple years? Damn. I suck. Better late than never I guess.
If you're still faithfully reading, let me know down below. Thanks guys.
