Chapter 4
Sunstone City
For 4 weeks, the entire world has been buzzing since the mysterious black-and-blue hero saved Sunstone City from its untimely demise at the hands of Jackal. Every single major media outlet in the world was covering the story about the hero. CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC News, NY Times, LA Times, USA Today, The Washington Posts, Time and Sunstone City's own, The Sunstone City Herald. Everyone had questions on their mind. Questions like: Who is he? Where is he from? How is he doing what he's doing? Is he a friend or foe? Are there more like him? Everyone wanted to know and he wasn't saying anything.
Since he saved Sunstone City, he had disappeared for the past 4 weeks. During those 4 weeks, people were wondering about him. People made assumptions about who or what he was. But nobody was getting anything out of him.
Fast forward to now, it was 8:56 AM in Sunstone City. The Guardian of Sunstone City now walked along the streets of his city wearing a black leather jacket with a black hoodie underneath with black jeans and black and white converse. He had been walking these streets for the past 4 weeks getting to learn about the city he had missed for a year. And it was true what people said, Crime never sleeps. It could be 2 AM and some idiot would still try to rob a gas station.
He looked up and from nearly a mile away, he surveyed a young teenage male with a pocket knife walking up behind an old lady at a bus stop. He shook his head and sighed as he then walked into an alleyway and hid behind a dumpster as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As he exhaled and opened his eyes revealing their glowing blue state.
He then ran creating a blur to those who could see him. As he ran using his Super Speed everything around seemed to move slower than normal. He blew past them and continued to make his way to the bus stop. Once he did, he grabbed the guy who was holding the knife and took him in a nearby alleyway holding him up against the wall.
He could see the guy who was holding the knife earlier look at him with fear in his eyes. The guy couldn't have been any older than 18 and by the looks of him, he was homeless. These were the type of things, that made Cedric want to help but he didn't want to put anybody at risk and he wasn't sure if he wanted to be a hero yet.
"I'm gonna let you go and when I do you're going to go to Cup O'Joe. Cup O'Joe is doing interviews on the spot tell them that a friend sent you." He nodded along in fear as Cedric dropped him to his feet as he then ran away leaving Cedric standing there with a frown on his face.
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Maverick Tower
Miles Maverick sat at his desk in his office at Maverick Tower, the HQ of Maverick Industries. Maverick Industries was one of the biggest corporations in the entire world and possibly the biggest in Sunstone City. It was the main source of income in the city. Because of the success of Maverick Industries, Miles and Madison Maverick were able to live their life that they did and establish the Maverick name as one of the most powerful names in American History but that wasn't enough for Miles. Miles wanted his name to be the most powerful in World History. He wanted Power. He needed it. It was something that fueled him. So much that he drove to great lengths in order to ensure it.
Miles had the Sunstone City Herald in his hands reading the paper with a frown on his face as he saw the image of The Black-and-Blue blur during his fight with Jackal with the headline, Mysterious Hero Saves Sunstone City.
"Dammit!" Maverick said as he slammed his fist down on his desk as he slammed the paper down.
"He wasn't supposed to be the one to save them, I was!" He said as he grabbed his glass of scotch that was next to him and threw it at the wall. He exhaled deeply as he then sat down in his seat and turned around to look at the picture of his father, Michael. In Miles's eyes, Michael was the devil. After Miles's mother, Michelle, passed away giving birth to Miles, Michael turned into a heartless son of a bitch who beat him.
"Look at you, you heartless son of a bitch. Funny thing is, I have you to thank. You made me this way. You made me the King of Sunstone City. Who would've thought what you created all those years ago turned into this? I single handily turned the company you started into my billion-dollar empire. So I guess you have me to thank for creating a positive legacy for you. And to think, all these years you said I would never amount to anything, you said I would be in the ground way before I did anything good. Jokes on you, I'm the King and you're dead." Miles said as he stared at the portrait of his father before he turned back around and grabbed the phone on his desk and pressed a button.
"Ms. Grey, I need you to get a press conference for 4 PM today. I have some pressing issues that need to be addressed." Miles said on the phone before he hung up and turned back to look at the picture behind him.
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Sunstone City
Cedric stood across from his house as he looked contemplating whether or not he should reveal that he was back. This was the entire reason that he had come back but it was a hard decision. A decision that he had to think about. He could impact so many lives by coming back and he didn't know if the impact would be a good impact or bad impact. By the looks of it, Kalani and his mother had both continued their lives, they didn't really need him there. Or so he thought.
Cedric looked through the house to see his mother standing in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hands. A smile broke onto his face as he looked at her. This woman raised him by herself since the age of 3. Before that, he lived with his father as his mother was in the army serving as a Marine. When she had to take care of him full-time she left the Marine Corp and joined the police academy eventually working her ass off to become a detective. Cedric understood that she sacrificed her entire life just for him. She did the job of two raising him and providing for him doing both nearly 24/7 her entire life. She struggled at times to pay the mortgage, bills and feed him but she made do. No one helped her. His grandmother had an estranged relationship with his mother and it was something that oftentimes made him think about why. But rather than waste his time to fix what's already broken, he spent his time making sure that no other ties were broken.
He smiled as he took off his hoodie and walked towards the steps leading up to his walkway. He walked up to the walkway and walked to the door. This was it, it was time to truly decide if he wanted to go home or not. Just as he placed his hand on the door, he felt a new wave of nervousness enter his body as he took his hand off the door and took a few steps back. He then bolted away taking his nerves with him.
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Sunstone City Herald
Kala walked into the Sunstone City Herald as she had her flowing down her shoulders as she had it curled. She was dressed in black suede knee-high boots with a short sleeve green dress. She had her cup of coffee in her hand with the file her boss gave her weeks ago in her other hand.
"Ms. Rose, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to work sir."
"I gave you two months of paid recovery."
"Which was very thoughtful sir but I'm fine. I feel so much better."
"You had a broken arm and a few broken ribs, I'm not sure you can feel any better."
"I'm fine sir. Besides who else is gonna work on the blur case."
"Blur?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking Black-and-Blue Blur, I don't really have another name for him besides Guardian but I feel like that's kinda corny."
"I don't think he's worthy of the name Guardian. He's been absent for 4 weeks, he hasn't been seen since the fight with that thing."
"Bummer, I was hoping that I could be the first reporter to get him to talk."
"If you could find him, please do so. And before I forget, you have a partner."
"A partner?"
"I've never had a partner."
"Yeah, well now you do. And this girl is a lot like you. I figured you two would mesh well. And she's a very good investigative reporter so she might be able to help with your article on this blur if he ever comes back." Kala followed as Leonard Sigman walked to his office. She was intrigued. A female partner. Just a partner, in general, intrigued her.
As Kala walked into the office, she turned her head to see a 5'4, Mexican-American woman with a petite build with tanned skin. She also had bright green eyes and long black hair that reached down to her shoulders. She wore a black pencil skirt with a white button-up with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of black heels.
"Ms. Rose, I would like for you to meet your partner, this is Natalia Rodriguez." Sigman pointed to the woman who was sitting in his office. She rose up to her feet and walked towards Kala extending a hand as a sign of respect.
"Hi, I've heard so much about you and I've read a lot of your articles."
"Thanks. Something tells me that we're gonna get along just fine." Kala said as both women let out a chuckle.
"Alright ladies, Miles Maverick has a press conference today at 4 and as my two leading reporters, I'm sending you guys out." Leonard Sigman said as he handed the two ladies press passes as they grabbed their passes, they turned to the door and walked out.
"Have you heard of Miles Maverick?"
"You mean, the billionaire CEO of Maverick Industries, yeah I've heard of him." Natalia said with a hint of disdain in her voice.
"I'm guessing you don't like him."
"Something like that."
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Downtown Sunstone City
Dr. Alyssa Hart walked into her apartment building in downtown Sunstone City. She carried a brown bag of groceries as she walked along to the elevator pressing the up button next to the elevator. The elevator made a ding sound as the doors opened allowing her to walk and press the button of her floor. She closed her eyes and collected her thoughts as the doors closed and the elevator started to move up. She opened her eyes as she heard a ding and walked through the doors onto her floor and walked through the hallway before eventually stopping at the door of her studio apartment. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her keys and placed them into the keyhole.
"Dr. Alyssa Hart." She heard someone whisper making fear creep into her soul.
"Yes, this is her."
"I need something from you."
"If it's money, I have some in my back pocket just take it but please d-don't hurt me."
"I don't want to hurt you. I just want two things from you. I want your trust and your help."
"Well, how can I trust a man who won't even show me his face?"
"You're right. Turn around." Alyssa did as she was told and turned around still carrying her groceries as she turned around and faced the hoodied figure. The figure took off hood showing her who he was.
"It can't be. Cedric, you can't be alive. You died in the Fusion Reactor explosion. How is this possible?"
"I'm alive and well doc. Now like I said, I need your trust and your help. And maybe a sandwich, I haven't eaten all day."
