“Michael implied that the Forgers were trustworthy,” I said, the doubt in my voice apparent even to me.
“Yeah, but only to a point,” Alex said, echoing my own thoughts. He let out a sigh. “There’s still too much we don’t know about these two. I don’t like it. I mean, what kind of organization gives a kid a weapon like that cannon?”
“It’s…worrisome.” I dropped my gaze. “But if Black and Blue really is here to hurt Edison Kent…then we need to stop her, right?”
Alex didn’t respond for five long seconds.
“The more damage Black and Blue does here, the more likely she is to help Kent’s campaign, which helps none of us.” He nodded. “Let’s do this.”
I nodded back and turned to the crowd, lingering over that five-second pause. Stopping Black and Blue was a smart move, but I couldn’t help but wonder, had it only been the right thing to do, would Alex be as willing to help?
I shook my head. This was no time to linger over my mixed-up feelings. We had a mission in front of us and people to help.
With that in mind, Alex and I set off in different directions.
I made my way through the crowd, trying not to linger on the press of bodies around me. My small stature and tiny frame were both a blessing and a curse. They allowed me to slip through small gaps between groups, but the fact that everyone towered over me made seeing where I was going a challenge.
My hearing remained perfectly fine.
“I didn’t vote for him the first time, but things are so different now.”
“The BCPD was so much stronger before the Actuals got involved.”
“Yeah, but this guy’s an alcoholic. I’m not sure if we can trust…”
“I bet the drones will never be the same again. How is that even fair?”
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to convince Renee to come.”
There was something about that last voice…
I turned my head to the right to see a tall, middle-aged couple who looked kinda familiar. My mind thought back to middle school dances, and chaperones, and I was able to make the connection. It was Renee Hua’s parents.
Seeing them here wasn’t all that surprising given my recent discussions with Renee. It was the third part of the trio that made me stop in my tracks, the task in front of me completely forgotten.
Because standing right next to them was my mother.
Alex
“Anything yet?” Riley’s unflappable drawl came over the comms.
“Nope,” I said, looking straight over the tops of heads. I watched as Dawn made her way through the crowd. “Any more info from your boss?”
“No,” Riley said, a note of frustration escaping into his normally laid-back voice.
Now isn’t that interesting.
“I’ll be sure to let Mr. Kent know that you’re here, Mrs. Jamison. I know he’ll be happy for your vote again.”
I blinked and turned to my right to see not one, but two familiar faces from my time as Faultline. One was Barry, a tall drone in his mid-twenties with dark hair and a broad smile. He had been one of my most promising boxing students. He spoke to a white-haired woman who must have been in her eighties, her back slightly hunched over with age.
And behind them both stood curly-haired Noel White, his lips twisted into a scowl.
“I was so sad when I heard about what happened to that nice nurse,” the older woman said, voice quavering.
Nurse? Could she mean Sara?
The smile fell from Barry’s face.
“Oh, we appreciate your sympathy, but Sara’s recovering just fine,” he said with forced cheer.
“But to try and hurt herself like that…” the woman began.
Hurt herself? How badly? That didn’t make sense. Sara had seemed solid back at Kent’s campaign headquarters.
I frowned, thinking back to the little I knew about Sara. Even before Calypso, things had been tough for her. I didn’t know the details, but I knew that it involved a dead child and a dissolved marriage. To have to deal with all this bullshit on top of that?
Barry sent the little old lady off with a forced smile, then turned back to Noel. Thanks to the crowd, I couldn’t make out everything he said, but he ended with, “—so many people would want to talk about it.”
“You can bet Kent knew.” Noel nodded at the stage. “Or at least someone on his campaign.”
“What?”
“We make a good sympathy vote. Parade out Calypso’s broken toys. You could have easily been one of them. Doesn’t that scare you?”
“Christ.” Barry shook his head. “You’re probably right. Much as I hate to admit it.” He paused. “You know, I don’t recall you being this…tactical back when, you know.”
“You mean back when I was brainwashed?”
“Yeah, but at least then you were still you. It’s getting kinda weird.”
“Yeah, well, sorry to bother you by thinking.”
“It’s not just that, man. Some of the guys were wondering if it, you know, rubbed off. From spending so much time with Faultline.”
“Excuse me?” Noel’s voice sharpened.
He began turning toward me, and I ducked behind a sign. Stupid, stupid, Gage. You’re a tall, muscle-bound lug. Not exactly the type of person who can disappear into a crowd. Not like…
Huh, where did Dawn go again?
I frowned and reached for the comm.
“Any luck, Dawn?” I asked.
The people next to me let out a whoop, drowning out Dawn’s reply.
“Hey, can you repeat that? Everything okay?”
“Sorry,” she said. “I saw…It doesn’t matter. I haven’t found her yet. And I’m cornered. Do you think we’ll be able to hear each other above the—”
As if on cue, the speakers around the park let out a high-pitched squeal. I turned, along with the rest of the crowd, just in time to see Edison Kent jog across the stage, waving toward the audience.
And in return, the people let out a roar.
I must admit, compared to when I had last seen him, Kent looked like a completely different person. Of course, back then, the man had just been drugged, knocked out, and kidnapped, so it’s not like he was at his best. He had been disheveled and frustrated and took out the latter on his fellow captives. The lady cop, Amanda Bronson, had gotten the worst of it. He had seemed to hold her just as responsible as the people who had kidnapped them.
Now, if there was a way I could describe the face plastered on the large screen above the podium, it was “groomed.” Well-fitting suit, not a hair out of place, a friendly, wide grin. Even his “flaws” had been altered to work in his favor. The gray at his temples made him look more distinguished than old, and the cut of his clothing took the extra weight he held around his middle and made him look imposing rather than fat.
Basically, instead of looking like a hassled kidnapping victim, he looked like a politician.
I wanted to punch him in the face.
“Thank you,” he began. “Thank you all! And thank you to the Tong family for allowing use of this space today. Isn’t this a beautiful building? Truly the jewel of Bailey City.”
The crowd applauded politely in response, and Kent looked up as if to admire the skyscraper behind him.
Or his face on the screen. Christ, you could feel the money coming off this event.
“The jewel of Bailey City,” he repeated, shaking his head. “You know, old-timers like myself might remember when that term used to refer to a very different building here in Bailey City: The Grand Bailey Hotel. In its heyday, the Grand Bailey hosted galas that attracted people from all over the world. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, movies were filmed there, and in the 1980s, we had three presidential visits. Three. For decades, The Grand Bailey Hotel was a sign to the world that Bailey City may be small, but the things we do here matter.”
He leaned in close to the microphone as he spoke those last few words. His voice echoed around the park. Several people cheered.
/> When Kent spoke next, his voice was softer, but no less steady.
“But recently, that hotel has come to mean something very different. Calypso. Faultline. Actuals. People who have the power to reach into your mind and rob you of your free will with a single touch. People with the power to tear apart our tram system, the central artery of Bailey City, with their bare hands. People who think it’s perfectly acceptable to snatch up the citizens of this city, from brilliant scientists to just as-brilliant-nurses, and use them—us—for their own twisted desires.”
He shook his head.
“I’m sure I don’t need to remind you what happened at this year’s Harvest Ball. After the terrors of that night, I knew it was time for our city to wake up. That these problems weren’t just New York and Boston issues any more. But instead of real solutions from our leadership, all I seem to hear is one name, repeatedly.” He leaned in close to the microphone. “Hikari.”
Boos filled the air as Dawn’s name echoed around the green, but I didn’t have a chance to think about that. Because the second the name “Hikari” filled the air someone bumped roughly into my side. I frowned and turned, for a split-second wondering if I had been pickpocketed. Instead, I saw a skinny figure in a dark blue raincoat, her jeans ripped at the cuffs. She made her way to the stage. Although it was a very different blue outfit, with a different hood, I couldn’t help but think back on Dawn’s description of the Costume that Black and Blue had been wearing before.
I stepped forward.
“Hey,” someone hissed at me as I felt something that probably hadn’t been a rock beneath my foot.
I apologized, pushing forward.
“Miss,” I said, as Kent’s speech continued. “Miss?”
I reached out and tugged on the jacket. The movement was enough to make the hood fall back, revealing dark, tangled hair.
“Sorry—” I began, then froze as the woman in the rain jacket turned toward me.
I’d know that face anywhere.
It was Dawn.
Of course, she looked nothing like the Dawn I was used to. Her black, shoulder-length hair was tangled, her brown eyes rimmed with dark circles. And the moment her eyes met mine, her lips twisted into a snarl.
Before I could respond, her hand lashed out and grabbed my wrist.
“You,” she hissed. “Fault-”
Kent must have said something impressive again, because the crowd around us erupted into cheers. And the girl—Dawn—jumped at the sudden noise.
Dropping my hand, she swung her head back toward the stage, letting out what I could only describe as a low growl, and then, in an action fast becoming familiar to me, she transformed.
The costume was different than Hikari’s. Like Dawn had described, instead of red and black, the color scheme was black and blue. Her cape was covered in a similar, but not identical pattern of stars. A hood covered her head, shielding part of her face. Her hair was mostly covered, but I could see that it was bright-blue instead of Hikari’s red.
She bent her knees and launched herself, jumping toward the stage.
“Shit,” I said, reaching for the comms. “Dawn, Riley, she’s loose.”
Dawn
My mother. Why was my mother here?
It was true that we had never been close, but this didn’t make sense! All those letters from Edison Kent…If she sympathized with his bananas views, she would have said something, right?
“But instead of real solutions from our leadership, all I seem to hear is one name, over and over again.” Edison Kent continued from the stage. “Hikari.”
Several boos erupted from around me, and I jumped. I couldn’t help but turn toward the speaker.
“Hikari.” Kent shook his head, as if in disgust. “Our media says that she protects us. Our mayor calls her a hero. Our law enforcement considers her a necessary tool against greater threats. And while I can’t blame those who may look fondly on a woman who rescues kittens, I can’t help but wish that people could see her for what she really is, a symptom of a far greater problem.”
He raised both of his hands, leaning back slightly from the microphone.
“Listen, I don’t blame people for liking superhero movies. Hollywood spends millions of dollars to make sure those films entertain us. But it doesn’t change the fact that they are just stories. And when you try and reenact those stories in real life, that’s when real people, people like us, get hurt, kidnapped, brainwashed, killed.
“It’s heroes versus villains, they tell me. Two sides. Just like in the movies. Just like on TV. But why is it that whenever I see these people indulge in their comic book fantasies, I see more regular folks like us getting caught up in the middle, more of us hurt than saved. I see two sides here, but I don’t see heroes and villains. I see everyday folks like us and crazed lunatics in costumes. Us and them.”
The crowd let out a thundering cheer that instantly made me feel small. That couldn’t be true, could it? I was just trying to help people. My mother had to know that. I craned my neck back in her direction.
Only to see something black and blue streak over my head and toward the stage.
“Shit,” I heard Alex say. “Dawn, Riley, she’s loose.”
Screams erupted from the crowd as Black and Blue hit the grass halfway down the lawn. I felt my pulse begin to quicken. No! We were too late. She was already here.
I was surrounded by people and had no place to transform.
Shit, shit, shit. Come on Dawn, use your brain. You can stop her. You just need a place to…
I paused, turning to the news vans. And for the first time in my life, I went running toward the cameras to transform.
Well, it wasn’t the cameras exactly, but the white vans parked behind them, completely empty as the news reporters and cameramen focused on the stage. I found a good spot between two large, empty vans, and closed my eyes.
When I opened them, I wasn’t Dawn anymore, but Hikari, a face I knew would not be welcome here.
But I had no choice.
I bent my knees and launched myself toward the stage.
Alex
The only way to describe the atmosphere around me? Blind panic.
Goddamn Edison Kent and his literal “us versus them” speech. All it took was the sight of one Costume to bring the level of fear up to eleven. Some of the crowd ran away. Others surged forward planning on…hell, what did I know? Attack Black and Blue? Protect Edison Kent?
I stumbled to the side as someone bounced off me. Turning, I saw a familiar person sprawled across the ground.
It was Noel White.
He blinked, looking up at me.
“What the hell?” he asked.
“Noel,” I began. “This doesn’t—”
“Are you part of this?” He pushed himself onto his feet. “Is this all some sort of plan to take out Edison Kent?”
“Like I give a shit about Edison Kent!”
“Well, maybe you should start!”
Before I could reply, a new chorus of screams filled the air. I looked up to see Dawn soar over our heads. She landed on the stage seconds later, where Black and Blue was already bearing down on Edison Kent. He stood at the podium, cowering behind it so the cameras were in a perfect position to pick up on Dawn’s killer right cross as it made contact with Black and Blue’s jaw.
“Oof,” I winced in sympathy. I knew how much that hurt.
Black and Blue stumbled back, and for a couple of painfully long seconds she was out of camera range. Then she jumped back into frame, tackling not Kent, but the bigger threat, Dawn. They both landed out of sight.
“Shit,” I said, forgetting all about Noel. We had bigger things to worry about.
I shoved through the crowd, stepping on another foot or two. Then, something must have happened, because both costumed women were off, Red and Black pursuing Black and Blue. They jumped to a two-tiered building next door. First to the lower roof and then on top of the higher one. I swore. Its height came short of the Tong bui
lding, but there was no way I could see what was going on from the ground. How the hell was I going to get up there? I couldn’t—
The two women surged upward again, but this time something looked wrong. Less like Dawn was chasing Black and Blue, then…
The glass on the side of the building shattered as Dawn’s body was dragged up the surface.
Dawn
Broken wrist. Dislocated shoulder. Fractured ribs. These were repeats of the injuries I had experienced in my short tenure as Hikari. Some of them happened so often that, even though the first place my brain went was “Oh, god! Oh, god! The pain!” beneath all of that fun panic was the steady voice of experience, diagnosing every small injury. And weirdly enough, that voice sounded a hell of a lot like my mom.
But all of those commonplace injuries paled to how my back screamed in pain at being dragged up the side of that building.
So you can imagine that being dumped on said back when we hit the top of the building wasn’t exactly how I wanted things to end up.
For a few seconds, I lay there, completely immobilized. My vision blurred, the sounds around me muddled as my other senses seemingly disengaged. But after a few seconds, I felt my healing factor—thank you healing factor—kick in, working in overdrive to take care of those injuries. And as it did, a new voice entered my mind. One that did not sound at all like my mother.
Just a little lie-down.
Before I could linger on that, I was wrenched to my feet, Black and Blue grabbing me by the scruff of the neck like I was a naughty kitten. Her hood had fallen off sometime during the fight, and for the first time, my eyes met hers.
My eyes…
Whoa.
Whoa!
That was me!
Well, me costumed up and with Blue Hair instead of red, but otherwise it was me. I mean, sure. Back on the ground, I had realized something was off, but with all the chaos—
And then the floodgates opened.
Black and Blue Page 17
