Hero Worship III:
Zach sat alone on the dark roof, bored and irritated. Since when did Cait ditch? She always tagged along for recon. What could possibly be more important than proving the existence of mutant alien creatures in the city? It was a lot more fun when she was here to talk to. Without her, it just seemed lonely and kind of weird.
With a sigh, he lifted his low light binoculars and scanned the rooftops again. Then he saw them and felt his adrenaline spike. He knew it. He just knew it! Grabbing his camera, he zoomed in all the way and began snapping pictures of the Nightwatcher, high fiving what looked like a lizard person. He had just known that the Nightwatcher was involved with the turtle creatures somehow, if not one of them. And now he had proof. Why would the guy being hanging with a lizard person if he weren't?
Zach kept taking pictures as they climbed gracefully down a fire escape. And then the Nightwatcher lifted a manhole cover for the lizard climb into before following her down. They went down to the sewers? Of course! That made total sense. Where else would a bunch of mutant aliens have their secret headquarters?
He could find it. He knew he could. All he needed were some city blueprints. Which he had from another relatively recent project. With his collection of all the sightings, he could totally narrow down the location. Child's play. Hah, he finally had them. Then he'd show the world who was the crazy one. He'd show them.
Caitlyn staggered along after Maria, or was it Shadow now, as her new mentor led her home, trying to process what had happened. Shadow had taken her to what seemed like an abandoned warehouse in the industrial district, except that it was full of Purple Dragon gang members.
She had thought she might faint the moment they walked inside. Except everyone seemed to know, like and respect Shadow. Scary. But Shadow only briefly acknowledged them, in a hurry to drag Cait up to the second floor. If she thought that she'd been frightened downstairs, she'd been wrong.
Upstairs, reviewing maps of the city, marked up with symbols and notes, was the most terrifying person yet. It shouldn't have been, considering that she was neither large nor burly, but there was something in her presence that commanded respect. Angel seemed an ironic name for someone who clearly had a lot more demon in her.
Needless to say, Angel had been underwhelmed with Shadow's new recruit, but had a soft spot for the book girl. So instead of tossing Cait out on her butt, she'd let her in on probation and made her Shadow's responsibility.
Then Angel had gotten an important phone call and taken off, saying that she had 'business' to attend to. Leaving Cait with Shadow for the remainder of the evening. When Shadow had taken her to the room with the mat on the floor to teach her some basics, she'd thought that it was better than going back down to the gang filled lower floor. Until she discovered that Shadow was just as brutal as her brother when it came to training. Seriously she was not going to be able to move tomorrow.
And she'd apparently acquired her rival as her new BFF. Well maybe rival. She may as well deal with her original mission objective while she could and maybe this mess wouldn't all have been for nothing.
"So, uh, Shadow…" Shadow paused her excited rambling to offer Cait her full attention.
"Right before I ran into you, I noticed you talking with your boyfriend and…" Shadow's expression clouded with confusion for a second before realization hit.
"Boyfriend? You mean Fong? Lord no! Eww. He's just another Dragon." Well crap. Still a rival then.
"Anyway tomorrow I was thinking…" Cait sighed as Shadow's ramble resumed. This had certainly gotten complicated fast.
Shadow had a bounce in her step as she walked home. She wasn't used to having friends. Well ordinary friends. Not that her extraordinary friends weren't great. They were the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her and made her feel unique and special in what was otherwise a kind of boring reality. But she had kind of felt like she was missing out on something important.
And making her new friends had been so easy. Odd that it had never seemed easy before. Oh well, she had them now and they were hers. Missing puzzle piece found. Sure, bringing Cait into the Dragons rendered her somewhat less normal, but Shadow was as odd and out of place among the vigilantes as she was everywhere else. It would be good to have someone she could really connect with in that part of her life.
That and if she didn't include Cait into some part of her unusual existence, she wouldn't be able to talk to her about anything. Besides they were going to get Cait's dragon tattoo tomorrow. It was so exciting, even if Cait seemed a little freaked out. Sure she'd been looking for a gym and had found herself inducted into a street gang, but combat training would be way better exercise than anything she could have found in a fitness center, so it worked out in everyone's best interest.
She'd just turned a corner when she saw Alopex come around another. And slam a young man against a wall. Wait, he looked familiar. Oh no, Alopex had Walt! And then dropped him and took off again. While it was a relief that Alopex had no legitimate reason to attack Walt, she was now left with a problem.
Walt was now a member of the 'mutant aware' part of society and his introduction had been less than ideal. Of the various ways this could resolve, she was now picturing him either tied up in a straightjacket in a room with padded walls or becoming a frighteningly kick ass hunter who indiscriminately executed all mutants, it could not end well. Easy imagination. Calm down. The situation was still manageable. Time for her to step in and save the day. She strode over to where he'd sunk to the ground against the wall, gaping in the direction where Alopex had disappeared.
"Walt, are you ok?" His head snapped over towards her and he relaxed slightly at the sight of her.
"Maria?"
"You look like you've seen a ghost. Or had your ass kicked. Or both." Ok that was probably not the best lead off for diffusing the situation.
"I…uh…no, I'm fine." Focus on calm and normal.
"The city can be a bit creepy this late at night. I've had my mind play tricks on me a few times, but I'm pretty imaginative, so I probably can't help it. Except those probably aren't imaginary bruises. Well there are jerks in the city too. Hope the other guy looks worse, right?" Oh man she was bad at this. He looked like he wanted to argue but was afraid of coming off as crazy.
"What are you doing out so late?" Good. Her question seemed to pull him back onto saner ground.
"Zach goes out a lot at night for…research. I tend to worry about him, so I usually take a walk myself. It's good to kill time until he gets home." She cringed. So much for his calming ritual.
"What about your parents?" He grinned sheepishly.
"Uh, they think we're both in bed."
"Would you like some company walking back?"
"Yes." He realized that he'd answered both too quickly and too emphatically, but she made an effort not to react to it.
"Lead the way."
He tried getting up, but Alopex had slammed him pretty hard and left some unpleasant looking scratches on his shoulder. She really hoped that he didn't need stitches. Maybe she could patch it up fine on her own.
Seeing him having trouble rising, she reached out and put his uninjured arm around her shoulders, helping him up. He supported his own weight as best he could, but still leaned heavily on her. With her training, she easily held him. Having him in such proximity spread a comforting warmth throughout her body, seeming to radiate from their contact.
"So, uh, direct the way."
He didn't say much other than the specific directions back to his building. She suspected that he might be a bit embarrassed by the situation. Upon reaching their destination, as he looked up dubiously at the fire escape on the side, she arrived at the full implications of him sneaking out. He would have to sneak back in or face the consequences. Well it should be a snap. The bottom ladder was even left lowered from his and/or Zach's earlier exit. Child's play.
"Come on! I'll help you up." He looked at her wide eyed.
"What? You've met my brother right?" He chuckled ruefully and she knew she'd successfully explained away any extreme athletic idiosyncrasies. A half hour later, she'd managed to half encourage, half drag him up to his floor and he was pushing open the window to what looked like…a bathroom?
Well this building had an interesting architect. Who wouldn't want to squeeze through the tiniest available room when fleeing en masse from fiery doom? To his surprise and possibly a little discomfort, she wasn't exactly sure as her interpersonal skills for reading people had always been a little weak, she followed him in.
"Uh Maria…"
"You should probably get the lights…oh and a first aid kit if one is available."
"What?"
"You've got some scratches that look like they ought to be cleaned out."
He suddenly remembered his shoulder and winced as the pain hit anew. Following her instructions, he flipped the light switch and handed her a white plastic box with a red cross on it. She gestured to him to sit on the toilet while she rummaged through the medical supplies. Moistening a wash cloth, she rubbed one corner with soap and turned back to him.
"Umm, your shirt…"
Realizing belatedly that it was in the way, he peeled his t-shirt up and over his head, sucking in a sharp, pained breath as he did so and tossed it in the nearby hamper. Her cheeks burned as she watched and she tried to will the redness away. She was a trained kunoichi after all. Sort of.
He was blushing too and avoided eye contact, while she carefully cleaned and rinsed each claw gouge doing her level best to not notice how well her brother's hockey lessons were working for his physique. The silence was almost painfully awkward as she pulled the cuts together with butterfly bandages after slathering them with antibiotic ointment, trying to find the right words to smooth the whole incident over.
Finally taping a gauze pad over it, she realized that she'd run out of time and needed to say something or the opportunity would be lost. Come on. She could do it. It should be just like writing. She just needed him to not freak out. To not see a nightmare in everything that defied rational explanation.
"You know…of all the mysterious, inexplicable things in the world, I've always believed there's more cause for awe than fear."
At her words, he turned to face her and she realized that they were mere inches apart. And that her words were vague enough to apply to this moment, unintentional or not. After a second's hesitation he started to lean in towards her and she suddenly realized just how much she wanted him to. And then a crash from out in the hallway broke the spell and they both pulled back in embarrassment.
"Zach?"
Walt stood up and hurried out of the bathroom. Not sure what else to do as it felt strangely impolite to leave without a proper goodbye, she followed him. He boldly shoved open a door covered in signs saying things like 'top secret' and 'do not enter' undeterred by their ominous messages. She understood. Her brother had futilely tried a similar tactic when they were kids. It never worked.
"Zach what are you doing?" So his brother had made it home first then?
"Sorry, I knocked over my lamp. I'll glue it back together later. Good thing I took the bulb out weeks ago for that lighting rig."
She scooted up next to Walt and had to fight an audible gasp. The room looked very much as she'd imagined Mr. Kurtzman's apartment would look like when the kooky old man had been described to her.
He had two full magnetic whiteboards covered in pictures and colorful sticky notes with dry erase writing and labeled arrows everywhere, connecting everything in some elaborate color coded system. Another side of the room, held a large cork board with all kinds of notes and documents pinned up with colorful pieces of yarn linking items. The rest of the room looked like a chaotic disaster of clothing, binders and notebooks and homemade equipment that would make her brother proud.
But the real source of her almost gasp was the content. Her friend Zach was hunting the turtles, her turtles, and from the looks of it was dangerously close to identifying them. Walt sighed as Zach finally surfaced from the trunk he'd been digging through, holding up his prize, which appeared to be layers of blueprints or schematics. Donnie would have known which they were.
"Zach…"
"I saw them today. I totally saw them. And I told you the Nightwatcher was one of them. He and some lizard creature were using a manhole cover to access the sewers."
"Zach…"
"Of course they live underground. It's so obvious now. And seeing where they went down, I can narrow down the most habitable locations they might be nesting. Good thing I still have these infrastructure prints from that treasure hunt."
"The one where you got lost and the city of New York kindly informed our family to keep you out of their sewers?"
"Yup, that's the one. I'll find them in no time now."
No. She had to warn the turtles. Maybe there was some way this wouldn't end in disaster. Oh crud, she was starting to hyperventilate. And now both boys were suddenly aware that she was present.
"Oh, hey Maria. What are you doing here?" Zach ran a hand nervously through his hair and Walt groaned and covered his face.
"It's just a silly hobby. He's not…"
"I have to go."
She fled the room and out of the apartment to a chorus of 'wait!' knowing that somehow she needed to fix this and that step one was fill everyone in on the problem. After that…she had no idea. Oh what was she going to do?