by Birgit Stäbler
It was early evening and the first streaks of dusk were already approaching.
Autumn meant less daylight and an earlier dusk, announcing it would be winter
soon. Not that winter was actually the snowy season. Electro City got few of
those, but when the snow hit, it was real snow. Piles of it. Predictions hadn't
come out yet whether or not it would be snowy this winter, but autumn was taking
over for sure now.
Derek Vega, lieutenant of the Electro City Police
Department, leaned back in the chair and gazed thoughtfully at the large screen
displaying the outside. The Magic Express had few real windows to the outside,
most of them small port holes, but he had ordered Angel to give him a view from
the roof camera. He liked to watch sunsets. They had a calming effect on him.
That he was here to see the daily spectacle had one single reason only: he was
too exhausted to go home.
Same went for the second person in the room who
lay outstretched on the couch, deeply asleep. Vega smiled as he looked at Ace
Cooper. He looked so young when he slept, barely the thirty-plus he was. All the
hard edges were smoothed out, all the masks had fallen, and he was the true Ace,
the one only a select few of friends ever got to see. Vega was honored to be
counted as one of them.
Their friendship had started out as a cop chasing a
criminal and it had ended being tight friends, trusting each other, relying on
each other. Vega couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather have as back-up than
Ace. Even without his magic, the man was an opponent to be reckoned with. His
physical strength and fitness showed it.
The old cop studied the sleeping
man, still smiling. All those years ago he had made a choice, had taken a risk,
and it had paid off. Ace Cooper had grown to be a fine man, a good friend,
and... family. Vega would be hard-pressed to admit it, but he felt that Ace was
like a son for him. He smiled as he kept looking at Ace. He had been a criminal
with a record when they had met, one of the best thieves and burglars there was,
a member of Jack Malone's gang, and a teenager who had done it all only for one
reason: to be with the girl he had fallen in love with. There had been no other
reason but love. Vega had risked a lot trying to influence the teenager, first
acting as a friend, later being one for real. He didn't know when he had changed
his mind about the boy, but probably the first time they had met and Ace had
devoured his sundae.
The smile grew warmer. Ace had been a lanky youth, wary
but full of hope, distrusting
but yearning to have a friend. Vega had turned
into one against his better judgment and he had never been disappointed. He had
made it his personal agenda to get Ace out of the gang and give him a chance.
When the magic had come into that equation, he had struggled even harder to
achieve his goal.
Magic.
Even today, after such a long time, he still
marveled at the concept. The Magic Force was something he couldn't really grasp,
even if he saw it every time he watched Ace work or fight crime. Magic and Ace
were inseparable. He vividly remembered his conversation with Anna over the time
he had visited Ace while he had stayed with her, and he remembered the very
first talk about magic they had had. She had tried to make him understand what
Ace was, what was inside him, what would happen, and though he had had
difficulties to understand, he had tried. It had concerned a boy he had grown
fond of. The subconscious fear had always been there, had never really left, but
it had soon turned into acceptance.
Over fifteen years ago, Vega would have
laughed at the sheer idea of such a thing as magic even existing. Now he knew.
And he had seen it again today.
They had busted a smugglers' ring and
Ace had pulled his bacon out of the fire with his powers. A few of the smugglers
had escaped, but his men were rounding them up. Those who had fought back had
managed to collapse several shipping crates onto the cop, but Ace had used
levitation and telekinesis to lift the heavy weights up. It had drained the
younger man severely and Vega had once again seen the limit. Ace had been
totally out of it, holding his head, and the cop knew he was going through
another headache again.
Vega knew a lot more than he had initially about the
limits the magician had. He wasn't all-powerful and he had very strict limits.
He pushed past those limits sometimes, but it always struck back at him and Ace
suffered from either a simple headache up to complete exhaustion and a
full-blown migraine. Vega had hauled him into his car and gotten him home. The
Racer could be picked up at a later date. Ace had mumbled something, tried to
tell him he was just fine, then he had collapsed on the couch. And he had been
dead asleep a minute later.
Yeah, he had gotten in over his head and all
because he had saved Vega. Not for the first time, not for the last time. They
made quite a team as crime fighters. Vega had repaid him numerous times already
and both had stopped counting. It was how things worked.
When Cosmo had
entered their until then rather smoothly running world, Vega had protested
immediately. Cosmo, thief, hacker, criminal...... a boy Ace had set his mind on
taking care of. A boy not unlike himself, as he had told Vega over and over
again. Today the older man had to confess that Ace had been right, ignoring a
few bumps and potholes along the way. He had been right about Cosmo and the
distrusting teen had turned into a competent though temperamental and pig-headed
boy. Someone to match Ace, Vega thought fondly. Just like Ace in so many ways.
If he looked back at it today, Vega saw how much those two fit together. Ace had
been kind of lonely till the day Cosmo had appeared; a showstar without a
family, someone looking for company and unable to stay around long enough for
any partnership to work, and in love with only one woman on top of that. A woman
who, until about a year ago, had more hated than loved him.
Yeah, Cosmo and
Ace fit together. And Cosmo was a magician as well now.
He grinned. Cosmo,
the magician. Headache central. Thinking of Ace as a magician had been a
headache already back then until Anna had stepped into the picture. Cosmo as a
magician was worth a migraine. Vega didn't know why, but those two factors
didn't mix in his opinion. That Cosmo was doing everything to learn and that he
hadn't been really happy about his abilities to start with had done nothing to
that feeling. But he was learning. Well, both did. Cosmo was learning about his
abilities, Vega about the teen. And about Ace who had taken over teaching Cosmo
and who did it with stubborn determination not to mess up.
As if Cooper ever
could, he thought wryly.
Ace was a perfectionist, almost paranoid when it
came to his powers, both physical and magical, and he rather wouldn't go up
against anyone with it. When he did, huh, he could wreak havoc.
Vega yawned
and put his feet up on the low table. The sun had almost set and only a soft
orange hue across the darkening sky showed. He would have to get up and leave.
Falling asleep in the armchair was no his favorite position. His body would
repay it with aches and cramps.
Not getting much younger, he sighed to
himself.
He gazed at the sleeping Magician. The couch couldn't be that much
more comfortable either, but he wasn't ready to wake Ace. It was good he was
sleeping. He had exhausted himself and tomorrow was another show. Ace needed his
strength for that. He had performed with worse injuries before and Vega
shuddered as he remembered just what his friend had gone through in all those
years, culminating in the complete change of his persona about a year ago when
Blackjack had changed Ace's brain chemistry. They had all suffered a lot, had
gone through hell and come back stronger but scarred, and he had no idea what
the future held.
Finally hauling himself up, Vega tip-toed to the door. The
Magic Express' main entrance door slid open noiselessly and he walked outside,
stretching, feeling another yawn approach. The air was already cooling and the
wind had picked up. As he was about to walk over to his car, headlights pierced
the twilight and the unmistakable whine of a motorbike pierced the silence.
"Yo, Vega!" Cosmo called cheerfully and stopped the bike.
"Evening,
Cosmo."
"Ace home?" the teenager asked, running a hand through his unruly
hair, which had not much suffered from the helmet. Somehow, nothing could tame
that mop.
"Yeah. He's asleep. Headache."
Cosmo nodded. "Felt something
like that today. Looks like you guys ran into trouble again." He grinned
obnoxiously.
Vega refrained from a comment and just shot him a dark look.
Empaths! "Just let him sleep."
"Sure. No problem. I'll be a mouse."
"Good night, Cosmo."
"Night, Vega." Cosmo waved and disappeared into the
train.
Vega yawned once more and got into his car. Sleep sounded very
enticing at the moment. Very.
The battered old car pulled away from the old
railyard and onto the byway that would lead to the main street. Vega knew his
way by heart, with his eyes closed, and he would be home in a flash. Tomorrow
would be another day and he'd have to set up his report and see if his men had
found the remaining smugglers. For tonight, he had shed the police officer
uniform, even if he didn't wear one anymore. Tonight, he only wanted to go to
sleep.