"You see, I didn't come here seeking Kenny Barker's aid. I came seeking Monarch's."

Kenny's voice grained a threatening tone, his eyes lost their tired veil as they grew dim and fixed on the teenager, like a predator ready to pounce at its prey at any second. "Again. You have the wrong person." He gave the kid one last chance to give up and go home.

The kid tested their luck as they leaned in closer. "Oh I'm sorry, would you rather I called you Raleigh?"

Kenny noticed the shadow from one of his neighbours coming up the stairwell, he swung the door open, grabbed the kid's hoodie and dragged them into his apartment before slamming the door closed. He listened until the neighbour's footsteps disappeared, before making any other sound.

The orange circles on the kid's helmet changed to buffering circles as they regained their balance. "Did you have to be that rough?"

Kenny leant against the door to block the main escape route, the aura he gave off could even make a lion whimper in fear. "Sit down!" His voice wasn't loud as the apartment walls were thin, but they carried a heavy weight to those who heard it.

The kid's eyes turned into flat lines as they sighed. "Yeah, I get it." They walked to Kenny's couch and sat down. They knew Kenny was going to ask his questions before he'd even listen to what the kid had to say.

Kenny walked to the living room and stayed standing up with his arms crossed. "Name?"

"Toucan." The kid lifted up their hoodie to reveal the armour platings around their body, bearing the insignia of a Toucan bird on the chest.

Kenny's eyes saw in between the cracks of the armour and saw thin steel beams and wires. "A robot?"

The kid's eyes turned into crosses as they made a shushing motion. "Secret."

Kenny hated how laid back this 'Toucan' kid was, but the answer wasn't too important to him. "You obviously looked into me. How much did you find?"

Toucan crossed his arms as he thought to himself, his eyes turning back into the buffering circles. "Hmm… a bit more than I thought. It was quite easy, though I pretty much knew most of the basic information I needed about you and the Hall. Afterall we did cross paths before, though that time is kinda hazy for me."

"The Hall…" Kenny figured the kid would have known how closely tied Kenny's past with the Hall is. But the kid's other comment caught his attention as well, as he would have remembered someone that looks anything like this Toucan kid does. "We've met before?"

"Yeah, the real tough part was finding you, it took so many years just to narrow it down to a single city." Toucan shrugged. "Who would've thought that the simplicity of coloured contacts and fake-glasses would make it so tough to find someone. Guess the comics had it right."

"When and where did we meet?"

Toucan's eye's turned into crosses again. "Another secret."

Kenny grew more annoyed. "Why are you here?"

"Like I said, I need help or rather skill, specifically Monarch's."

"Skill for what exactly?"

"I've scheduled a meet-up with some unlawful people, so I need you there for crowd control if things go bad."

The vein on Kenny's forehead looked as if it was about to pop. "Is that all? You looked into my background and then wasted years locating me, just so I can act as muscle?" Kenny's eyes showed that he was teetering over the edge of anger.

"That's not the whole reason. But pretty much, yeah." Toucan replied nonchalantly.

Kenny walked over to Toucan, he grabbed the collar of their hoodie again and quite forcefully pulled their face closer. "Last question. Since you brought them up, I have to ask. What are you to the Hall?"

"I let that slip… Well to be honest, I hate them. Or I believe it would be more accurate to say that I loathe them. That's why I've scheduled this meeting." Toucan grabbed Kenny's arm and his eyes, even though fake, showed a flame of determination behind them. "No matter what I lose, or however long it takes, I will make them fall. That's my number one goal!"

Kenny threw Toucan down onto the couch and walked away. He took his glasses off and took out his coloured contacts, revealing his true emerald green eyes, that he only then hid with his hand out of either frustration or anger, even Kenny couldn't tell which it was.

Toucan stood up from the couch. "That's why I sought you out. Without your help, without Monarch's help. I can only do so little against them." Toucan held their hand out towards Kenny. "Please help me. Be a hero and bring them to justice."

Kenny glanced at Toucan's hand and then to their eyes. "You came here, in hope that I would throw everything I have away, to what? Be a hero?…" He turned around to face Toucan, his eyes didn't just show anger, instead they showed the gathering of emotions that didn't belong to Kenny Barker, but rather someone else that had been locked away for a long time. "There's no way in hell, I will!"

Toucan's eyes showed his desperation. "But why? Their downfall could benefit both of us so much!"

Kenny's, or rather Raleigh's voice turned bitter. "Do you know how long it took me to stop looking over my shoulder after I escaped from the Hall? Or how many years it took till I started trusting people again?" Raleigh's hands clenched into fists as his feelings began to bubble up to the surface.

Toucan's pleading eyes looked into Raleigh's, he saw the weight of thousands of emotions trying to break out after being held back for so long. The confusion, the frustration, the anger, the guilt, the shame, the disgust, the anxiety, the suffering, the loneliness… Just from a single glance, Toucan saw all of it.

"I'm not a hero, nor will I ever be. I finally have feelings that I've always wanted, people I want to know more about, a life I can actually be happy living with… I'm not throwing that all away." Raleigh looked away and took a deep breath to try and compose himself. "Kid, the Hall isn't something, someone like you can take down. Even I didn't attempt to, as I already knew how it would end." Raleigh gestured to his front door, telling Toucan to leave. "I'm telling you this for both of our sakes, don't go to that meeting, nothing good will come of it."

Toucan looked down to the floor before raising his head and walking to the door. He stopped and turned back to look at Raleigh. "I've dedicated as much of my life as I could to finding anything and everything I can about the Hall. All so I can use that knowledge to bring them down. If I quit now I'll just be betraying myself. So I'm going to that meeting, even if it means going alone."

Raleigh's voice grew weak as he turned his head away. "Don't blame me when things don't go your way."

Toucan placed a piece of paper on the cabinet next to the door. "If you change your mind, this paper has the time and location of the meet-up. It's in a few hours so you have time to think, and I… I'm sorry if I caused any trouble." Toucan took one last look at Raleigh before leaving, closing the door behind him.

Raleigh turned off the light in his apartment, causing it to only be lit by the moonlight that shone through his windows. He sat on his couch and put his head in his hands, trying to once again lock the emotions away. He reached for the hot drink he made earlier to try and relax and took a sip, only to notice its depressing temperature. "It's gone cold…" Raleigh put the cup down and wiped the forming tears in his eyes, before standing up and walking to his bedroom to sleep.

Toucan slowly walked out of Raleigh's apartment building. He took one last look at Raleigh's apartment window and noticed the light was turned off. "The only person I could call my hero… I really am alone in this." Toucan's eyes showed a hint of sadness and regret as he walked away down the dark and cold alley, his heavy footsteps slowly getting quieter and quieter before completely fading into nothing.

As Raleigh laid in bed, he kept falling in and out of sleep. The nightmares he had reenacted very short, yet very painful memories of a time where he fully aspired to be a hero. In-between these nightmares he'd remember Toucan and was fixated on the look of a desperate child clinging to any strand of hope they could. A look he knew far too well.

He rolled onto his back and laid his arm over his eyes, a single tear rolled down his cheek and that angered him for some reason. He shot up and wiped the tear away. "It's not my fault if he ends up going!" Raleigh tried to fight the guilt inside as it formed a pit in his stomach. "It's his own fault, I did what I could to warn him." The pit grew heavier as deep down Raleigh knew that if he didn't go the kid would surely die, and yet he continued to fight that feeling for the sake of keeping who he was in the past just a memory.

Raleigh stood up and slowly walked to his living room as he suddenly felt thirsty. "I'm allowed to be selfish every now and then… aren't I?" He grabbed his stomach as the pit grew heavy enough to make him feel like puking.

Raleigh glanced at the coloured contacts and the pair of glasses that he left on the coffee table. "The thought of even going to the meet-up makes it hard to breathe." He slowly walked to the cabinet by his front door and picked up the piece of paper left by Toucan. "But even so, what is it? What part of me is yelling at the rest of me to go?"

Raleigh silently stood at his front door, staring at this piece of paper for minutes, reasoning with himself as to whether he should go or not. His eyes moved down and turned dim before he forcefully punched himself in the gut to make the overwhelming guilt subside, even just for a moment. He sighed as he set the piece of paper down and walked away… back towards his bedroom… closing the door behind him.