Edit 1/6
Watching a fight was never fun for me, never a great feeling. Well maybe once it was, watching the great stage of good vs. evil. Of Heroes vs. Villains. Now, now I am older, no longer seeing things through rose colored glasses. I stood now at the edge of a crowd before a shopping district. The road is blocked off by a Rescue hero holding up lines of water. Fire on the buildings that bracketed the sides of the roads, asphalt cracked, and in the middle of the chaos, a villan and a hero fighting for dominance. Civilians so long used to the every lasting fight that some called into work, calling in late. Others commenting on the fight as if it was just a local sports event.
As the fight came to an end, another hero who hadn't even been their at the beginning of the fight came in and knocked the villain out. The hero taking the credit. All the heroes trying to pose as the police took in the villain. It was such a shame, looking at the workers already showing up to clean up the subway of this pricy district.
"Aunty Zu?" I looked down to the little one I was watching today, offering the little boy a kind smile. The little one tucked up against my side hiding under one of my wings. So much like my little one so long gone.
"It's over now, right, the scary man is gone?" I leaned down and picked the little one up, letting him sit on my hip.
"That's right, the heroes caught the bad guy." I smiled too him gently.
"Do you think they would come to the Glades?" He whispered softly, knowing he would get looks for mentioning the subcity that we both called home.
"The Glades are a dangerous place, Tyler, I answered him just as softly. "Even for heroes." Looking up to the heroes as one posed for the cameras and the others looked at the cameras and the one before them with annoyance and longing. "Especially for heroes like them," And with that I turned away, the train was no longer an option. I would need to find another way back home. Walking in the direction of the Glades.
"But what about Viridian?" Tyler asked perking up a bit.
"Viridian is a ghosts tale, little one," the smile ever present. "One told to little girls and boys to make them feel safe."
"So you think that the Monster is out there," He deflated a bit pouting at hearing the kinder of the two guardian stories was not real.
"There are monsters everywhere, Tyler," I warn him kindly, not wanting to terrify the boy too much, but it was a warning all his age needed to hear. The mask in my back pocket became heavier with the knowledge I did have. "Especially in the Glades."
Another day, another night, another patrol through the Glades, the home of scum and criminals. Of people abandoned or scorned by society. A part of town that cops rarely ventured into and very few heroes even entered. It's own police precinct filled with rejects of their own. Cops desperate to do what is right, and also those who everyone hates. Backstabers and bought men. A part of the city hit hard by an earth quake, several skyscrapers collapsed and a lot of other buildings just abandoned. But there was water, and some power. It was a home for the desperate, and as long as you followed the rules most wouldn't bother you. I was welcome here, keeping to the low level crime so tolerated. Keeping the drugs away from the family living areas and the run away haunts. Chasing off the rule breakers that thought the Glades could become their play ground. It was a good place to get in contact with anyone in the Underground, to get low and hide. It was a good place, it was my place.
It was the laughing that brought me to crime alley towards the end of my self proclaimed shift. Well, it wasn't much of crime alley anymore with it being the center of my territory but still. The laughs brought me to the edge of the roof looking down to see 3 somewhat familiar teens and an adult that looked more like a skeleton than a human. I could see why the teens had chosen him as a target. His cloths screamed fresh meat even with the blood on his collar.
"Zen!" I barked out the name of the leader getting the boys to stop short looking up to me.
"Oh, oh hey Vi we, uh, we weren't doin nothin," Zen stuttered out.
"You're in my territory fuck wad, get out," I hissed at him, gloved taloned hands flexing on the edge of the roof. The skeleton man kept thankfully quiet watching us with a strange look in his eyes, yet he stayed silent. Attempting to fade into the shadows, yet he didn't run.
"You claim all of the Glades, how's that fair! We deserve a cut!" I laughed loudly, shrugging off the demand, straightening and started my decent down. From Ac unit to firescape, slowly making my way down with an air of annoyance and power.
"If you wanted a fight you only need to ask Zen," Offering a feral smile that had his two friends taking a step back, all as I dropped down, the last of the way, using the ladder to control the fall. Letting go and striding forward. Flicking my wrist and my knife twirled between my fingers before I slid it home again to continue the silent threat.
"Fuck you, fine take em, we got a big enough haul anyway," with that they were gone. Waiting for a moment I turned to the man who now safe began to cough up what seemed to be a lung. Well it seemed he had the sense to not let the sharks smell his blood in the water.
"Hey, you alright?" I asked, looking the skeleton over for obvious signs of harm. Though he looked fine. Taking the moment to better look him over. He had clean blonde hair that seemed to be more of a mane than normal hair with long bangs that fell like an upside down W or V.
"I'm fine, Young, Vi, was it?" He asked, whipping the blood off his chin.
"It's what they call me, you should be in the hospital old man," not asking for his name, only addressing what I see.
"Trust me, Young Vi, there is nothing they can do," he seemed to mourn this statement. Something far deeper down than what I could see was wrong, cancer maybe.
"You might be dying sure," I shrug, earning a shocked look. "But a warm bed and warm food is nothin to scoff at." I warned him, shoving my hands in my pockets. "Come on, I'll take you to the nice one." Turning my back on him and starting to walk, once I got to the end of the alley I stopped looking back. "You comin or what, I want to go to sleep at some point this morning." I called, and this got him moving to follow. He wasn't fast, but with him coughing up blood, I didn't expect much. Him not running was probably for the best.