Chapter 9

Arc 1

Sunstone City Herald

Kala walked into the Sunstone City Herald with a huge smile on her face. Last night The Black-and-Blue Blur had been spotted in Sunstone City and she had a picture. A picture of him in action and it wasn't one of those blurry pictures where you couldn't tell what was going on, no it was a clear cut photo. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see Kala's smile and sense her general happiness.

"Well looks who's smiling wider than usual. Let me guess boyfriend's hitting all the right spots. Or is it Cedric?" Natalia said making Kala's cheeks redden in embarrassment.

"For the record, Cedric is just a friend. And my boyfriend is not the reason I'm smiling."

"I see the way he looks at you, friends don't look at their friend the way he does. And you still didn't answer my question about the boyfriend."

"And I'm not going to. I have a picture of Sunstone City's very own Black-and-Blue Blur. It's from a fight last night in an alleyway." Kala handed the image to Natalia. Natalia held it in her hands looking at the image. She saw The Blur floating with glowing blue eyes. The image had an amazing quality for it to come from a camera in an alleyway.

"Oh shit. This could get us the front page for sure. But how did you get this picture?"

"Cameras in the alleyway captured it. I had to pay the owner of the cameras to let me get the images but hey, no pain no gain."

"Definitely we need to start working on that article now."

"Ladies, I know that you two have been working very hard, so to treat you, I will be giving you two ladies the assignment to review the newest and hottest nightclub in all of Sunstone City. Club Zero, It's Miles Mavericks newest nightclub and tonight is the grand opening. I have secured you two a spot with a plus one for each of you. Now you two finish up on your article and have it on my desk and you're free to go and have fun tonight."

"Thank you, sir." Natalia said as she looked at her boss. He smiled as he nodded at both women and turned to walk back to his office. Both women look at each other with a smile since they had just gotten the day off once they finish their article.

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Pop's Diner

Cedric and Koya both walked into Pop's Diner with smiles on their faces. Ironically it was the favorite restaurant of both the son and the father. Cedric could remember the times he came with his parents. During the first three years of his life, he lived with his father, spending the weekends and holidays with his mother. There was a period where Pop's was all Cedric could eat, it was all his father could afford. And when his father went away, he found himself eating Pops more often than usual. So much so that Pop's became a hangout spot even with Kala. He even hung out sometimes by himself at Pops.

He looked around at the dinner and in a year nothing had changed a bit. It still had that classic diner look with the white, blue, and hot pink interior. Behind the counter, he could see the neon sign that said "Pop's Diner".

"Ced! My man!" said a tall African American man walking out from the counter. Pop had a salt-and-pepper colored hair with a bushy beard.

"Pop." Cedric replied with a smile as he gave the owner of his favorite diner a hug.

"It's been way too long. I heard you were in town and I have been dying to see you. And you brought a special guest with you." Pop said chuckling as he gave Koya a hug as well making Koya give off a smile.

"I'm sure you two men are starving and looking for some grub. So take a seat and I can feed you, gentlemen, with some of the best food in Sunstone City." Pop said as both Koya and Cedric sat down at the counter. Just being in the atmosphere of the restaurant brought back a lot of memories for Cedric. Memories of his youth. Pop's was even the place where Cedric learned how to treat people properly, more specifically women. He had his first date at Pop's and his dinner for after prom.

"Alright Gentlemen, a few things have changed since y'all been back so let me know if y'all got some questions." Pop said as he sat down some menus in front of the two gentlemen.

Just then Cedric got a text from Kala making him look at it with a confused frown before he opened the message to read it and respond. It was a text asking him if he wanted to go out tonight along with her and Natalia and Joey. He sighed before responding with a "Sure".

"Everything okay son?"

"Yeah, just another day with my bestfriend and her boyfriend." His father looked at him with a frown as they turned back to look at their menus and decided on some grub.

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SCPD

Detective Kimberly Harvey sat at her desk currently looking at a file with pictures taken of the crime scene. She was taking a look at the pictures of the scene that her son described to her. There was a clear outline of a body on the ground in black.

"Damn." She said running her hand over the outline of the body.

"I know I said the same thing when I first saw it. The city's slowly going to shit. And it's all because of the blur." Joey said, making Kimberly look up placing her eyes on Adam making him frown as she looked at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Repeat what you just said."

"The city is going to shit. And it's The Blur's fault."

"What do you mean? The Blur had nothing to do with anything other than this and stopping that thing weeks ago. The Blur has done nothing but save people."

"Ever since he got here more bodies have been dropped by The Monarchy. I've checked the morgue way more than usual. He's pissed off The Monarchy. He's made it clear to them that they're his target. He's ruined our investigation. We were gonna get them and make sure that they're down forever."

"Corruption. Joey, how do you think they're able to move weight so easily? How do you think they're able to move their product all over the city so easily? Corruption Joey. They know when we're close that's why another body gets dropped. They drop another to get us to focus on that one why they move farther away from us. And we weren't even close with the investigation. Let's just be honest."

"Why are you defending him?"

"Because I believe he's a hero, Joey."

"Well, I think he's a menace. He puts us in a bigger risk than ever before. You've seen what he could do. What's to say that there aren't threats out there stronger than him."

"And when they come, he'll protect us."

"When? When he comes out of the shadows? No chance of that happening anytime soon. Until then he will always be a menace. He's a vigilante only acting when he sees best. He's not a hero. If he was he could come forward and work with us or work under our discretion."

"You sound like you want to control him."

"Controlling him could keep us safe. We keep under our control and only allow him to operate when we say so, so we could control him and limit him."

"There's no controlling a man like that."

"If he's even a man at all." Joey mumbled under his breath looking down at his phone while Kimberly looked up at her partner in disgust after hearing his statement. The statement seemed like something she never would have thought he would say. He wanted to control a man. And not just any man. Her son. The one-man she knew could protect the city and protect the world.

"My father used to say it's not who you are that defines you but what you do."

"Sounds like a smart man. But so far all your so-called hero has done was hide in the shadows. Just like that hooded freak in Sin City."

"He's saved people, Joey. He's saved countless lives all over the world."

"And you think that makes him a hero. He's nothing more than a vigilante. Now partner, if you don't mind I don't want to have this conversation again." Joey said as he got up taking his cup of coffee with him while Kimberly kept her eyes on him.

Castings:

Pop - Kevin Michael Richardson