The city streets are crowded, even with the rain. Hidden in the darkness is the element, waiting to strike like snakes.
And I'm there too.
Watching.
Fear is a tool.
.
And I know how to use it.
13th Avenue is one of the more abandoned parts of the city and it shows. Lampposts flicker steadily, trash tumble on the street with the occasional rat scurrying in the corners. Very little chance of any human activity happening tonight.
It's why they're here. Waiting. Silently. Patiently.
"This is a stupid idea."
...or maybe not.
"Nothing's going to go wrong guys." the boy continues in a high pitched voice, "I'm the smartest person in the room guys. There's definitely no way robbing one of ABB's biggest cash houses is ever going to get us in trouble, guys."
I roll my eyes at the poor imitation of my voice. "Shut up Regent."
"We're all going to die."
"Regent..." Grue warned.
"Slowly. Painfully."
Rachel scoffed.
"Burned to death over a slow fire."
"Regent."
"Lung picking on our bones after he's done with us."
"Regent! Shut up!" I hiss,"They're here."
They scurry to my window where I have a bird's eye view of our impending doom.
Two dozen men. All armed. Asian. Tattoos, cigarettes
Yes. I know they're ABB powers. Tell me something helpful.
The man in the middle. Metal mask. Lung. Here to kill.
I wince. Something helpful I said.
"Tattletale?" Grue and the others look at me expectantly.
"He's definitely more pissed than I expected." Liar
" We hit him a bit too hard."
Just as I planned
"He's here to kill. We're going to have to play our A game."
He's waiting. Another ally. Oni Lee.
"Lee's here." I add, "Probably gonna be part of the first wave. Trying to flank us while Lung hits us hard in the front."
"So dead." Regent muttered.
"Fuck this," Bitch growls, "Let me have at them. I can take them down."
No you can't
"No," Grue speaks firmly, "We expected this. We've prepared for this. We stick to the plan." It takes a while for him to glare Bitch into submission. "Tattletale, where's Lee?"
"Probably waiting on the roof, waiting for the signal." It's a guess, but a damn good one. Oni Lee's simple minded. Extremely simple minded. It's unfortunate that his predictability does nothing to make him any less of a threat.
"Okay." Grue inhales and speaks, his voice steady and firm, very little of it betraying the fact that he's terrified out of his mind, "We'll deal with Lee first. Rachel, Regent-"
They freeze as there's the sound of glass breaking. Footsteps, quiet and muffled.
Grue's helmet turn towards me, his question obvious. Is it him?
I nod.
.
There's the sound of cheering outside. Lung's men are entering the building, weapons drawn, thirsty for blood. Lung himself doesn't enter, glaring at their window with a burning (heh, Lung. Burning.) hatred. I shudder at the possible tortures Lung was thinking about forcing on us but at this very moment he was a secondary problem. The footsteps were getting louder
Where is she?
and louder.
There's a clicking sound. Oni-Lee's grenades.
He knows we're here. He's playing with us.
Grue moves to the door, his dark smoke already smoldering out of his vented helmet. Regent goes to the other side his scepter ready.
The footsteps stop.
Right outside their door.
Rachel's dog slowly start to grow, teeth bared in a silent scowl. I grip my handgun with both hands, aiming at the door.
I'm scared. I'm willing to admit it. This was a gamble (ironic considering it took robbing a casino to set all these things in motion) and this could be the moment where everything could go horribly wro-
Tap-tap-tap. Crash
The door splinters as something, someone is slammed against the door. There's a hiss, a pop, another crash. Oni Lee's yelling, swearing in Japanese. The rustling of cloth, two people grappling. Thwack. The sound of a punch landing, and another and then Crack. Something broke.
They stay frozen as the building falls into silence once more. Grue glances at Regent and me. Slowly, hesitantly, I give a nod.
He reaches forward and turns the door handle.
Oni Lee's limp form collapse onto the floor.
The others stare, uncomprehendingly. I force myself not to smile.
She's here
"We have to get out of here." I whisper.
"What?!" Bitch growls, "Freaky mask's dead. Let's go beat up the rest of them."
"Who was that?" Regent asks.
Her you idiot
"Not important." I snap back, "Someone's here to take on the ABB for us and we're going to use to make a run for it. With luck Lung will have someone else to be pissed at instead of us."
"That's not-" "We're going to."
"Quiet!" Grue's gives me a look. One that promised that they would talk when everything was over. "We don't have time to argue. She's right this is a chance, and we're going to take it." He begins hashing out a quick plan, giving me time to think.
.
.
.
She's here. This is a chance. Finally.
The blind spot in this fucking city. The one thing he can't see.
Search on PHO enough and the first sighting of the vigilante would be approximately two years ago. A mugging stopped short by a teenager, her eyes covered by what the witnesses could only describe as a blindfold. Days later, BBPD will announce a successful Merchant drug shop raid. Dig a little deeper and you'll find reports on the vigilante who'd led them right to it, along with the extensive hospital reports of the people who had been guarding the place. E88 loses a street. Another mugging stopped. A bank heist averted before it could begin.
'Themis' the PHO fanatics named her. The goddess of justice delivering her sentence. She could have been a celebrity. Quite possibly the longest surviving vigilante to exist in Brockton Bay to date. People began to speculate on what her powers were. A brute? A thinker? Tinker? Shaker?
Then the PRT made their statement.
After an extensive investigation partnered with the BBPD we have reached to the conclusion that the alleged vigilante Themis does not have any parahuman abilities.
Any wind up to her story died immediately. A vigilante with no powers in Brockton Bay? Impossible. Most immediately dismissed Themis's existence as a whole, after all the only description they had was a girl with dark hair, a mask and a dark suit. Were they sure that they were even the same people? Many doubted, most didn't after one of the witnesses to her acts confessed that they lied about seeing Themis to get some short fame on the net. Themis quickly dissipated into the oblivion while gaining over a dozen different names on the way. She becomes a horror story for Brockton Bay, it's own little boogeyman. A myth. A fantasy. Not. Real.
But their belief didn't stop the reports from coming in. Crimes were stopped and reported, the perpetrators sent to the ECU.
The PRT ignored it. The gang called lies. But it didn't stop. PHO may have stopped believing but to the ones in the know the shadows seemed darker than ever.
Thugs, rapists and villains were finally given a reason to fear the darkness they preyed in.
.
Yells came from below. Gunfire. Screams.
Eighteen voices.
Fifteen.
Eleven.
Nine.
Eight.
BOOM
Four.
Two.
.
.
.
.
She never knew gunshots could sound so desperate.
.
.
.
Grue's calling my name but I ignore him and look outside the window just in time to see her emerge from the shadows.
.
Brockton Bay's boogeyman was real.
She doesn't even look that winded, as if taking on Oni Lee and half of ABB's roster was just another day in the week.
Lung roars, proud and powerful. His flames lighting up the street. He can't take this standing down.
Hands grab me and I'm dragged onto one of Bitch's dogs but not before she looks up, her dull yellow lenses glancing up at me.
Bitch whistles and they're off. Away from the impending fight, bounding off into the night.
.
She's real.
.
I'm almost giddy with excitement.
She's real. She exists.
.
I look up at the sky even as the city lights up behind me, feeling something I haven't felt in long, long time.
.
.
.
Finally.
.
A chance.