Black and Blue

by Nancy O'Toole Meservier

  “Just a little lie-down.”

  “Surprised I got you up here.”

  They hit me all at once, the voices at first distinct, then blending together in one messy word-filled soup. Black and Blue stumbled back, grabbing her own head.

  “Do you hear them too?” I asked, shocked that I managed to keep myself upright.

  Black and Blue looked up, her gaze hitting mine once more.

  “Such a beautiful face .”

  “I doubt she let things go that far.”

  “Stop that!” she said, her voice an animalistic growl.

  “I’m not doing anything,” I said, raising my (now healed) right wrist. “I swear I don’t know—”

  I was cut off as she launched herself at me, her right arm held out straight. I had just enough time to think about ducking—but was too overwhelmed to complete the task—before she clotheslined me in a move that would have been more appropriate in a televised wrestling match.

  “Do you hear me, girl?”

  “There’s no denying it’s far from ladylike.”

  “It’s a good thing your father isn’t alive to see this.”

  My (already injured, mind you!) back hit the ground, and I let out a cry of pain. Fortunately, desperation is a great motivator, giving me just enough energy to scissor-kick Black and Blue. She lost her balance and went down hard.

  “Just a little lie-down.”

  “They’re all afraid of me, you know.”

  “Uuugh. Fuck you, voices,” I cried out in exasperation, taking advantage of Black and Blue’s distraction to push myself back onto my feet. I backed up a few steps, putting some distance between us.

  Come on Dawn, think. You’re dealing with your mirror self here. The evil you. Only without a cool-looking goatee. Same face, similar costume, and, from what I could see and feel, all my powers too.

  I blinked. If that was the case…

  Then she had all my weaknesses too! If I could just get her to run out of healing energy, she would be forced to transform.

  But of course, I had to do that before my healing powers ran out.

  And if the lingering pain in my back was any indication, I was already at a deficit.

  Alex

  I tore open the front doors, entering the all-too-familiar lobby of the Tong building. My mind raced through those blueprints I had studied with Amity. Why had I paid so little attention to everything above the ballroom?

  The front doors swung open again. I turned around to see Riley run in, a suitcase tucked beneath one arm. He was also slightly out of breath.

  “The elevators,” I said, blocking his path. “Where are the elevators?”

  Jane jumped in first.

  “The hallway is past the desk and to the left,” her voice came through on the comms. “Although they don’t go all the way to the—”

  I spun around, ignoring the rest of what she said. When I got to the elevators, I jammed my finger in the up button. Luck must have been on my side for once, because the doors in front of me opened right away. Both of us pushed inside. Riley set the suitcase on the ground and dropped to his knees next to it.

  “Head to the top,” Jane’s voice came through again. “I think I may have found the roof access.”

  I pressed the top button, and the elevator let out an irritatingly cheerful ping.

  “Thank you, Jane.” Riley’s voice was gratingly calm, his steady hands working on some sort of combination lock on the side of the suitcase. “Probably best Hikari took the fight up to the roof anyway. Keeps us out of sight.”

  “Took the fight?” I shook my head. “Did that look willing to you? She was dragged up the building.”

  “Regardless, the results are the same. Now we can apprehend Black and Blue—”

  “That is if she hasn’t thrown her off the roof already.”

  “Our records show that Hikari has survived a fall from a far greater height,” Jane piped in.

  “Yeah but that doesn’t make it pleasant. Dammit!”

  I swung at the elevator wall, my fist leaving a sizable dent behind. The car rocked slightly.

  “Whoa,” Riley said, raising both hands. “Your powers. They’re not…triggered by your emotions, are they?”

  “Anger, obviously,” I said, my voice barely more than a growl, lights dancing around the corners of my vision.

  “Wait-what?” Jane said. “Did he—”

  “Jane, make a note to contact headquarters. We’re going to need someone to scrub us from the security footage of this building,” Riley said. “And let us know where we need to go when we hit the top.”

  “Y-yeah, sure,” Jane replied, her voice softer. And, if I were to admit it, a little bit scared.

  Not that I could blame her. I had just used my powers in an elevator, after all.

  I closed my eyes, pressing the heels of my palms against them. Some anger, well, that was necessary at this point. But too much? That just made me stupid, especially when combined with fear. Fear that Dawn was going to get hurt. Hell, had already been hurt, and that this all could have been prevented if I hadn’t been so shocked at how much Black and Blue looked like her.

  I could see the flashes of light even with my eyes shut, but as the elevator rose, they began to fade a little.

  “Are we going to be good?” Riley’s words were punctuated with sharp snapping noises.

  I lowered my hands and opened my eyes to see the source of the noise. Riley was strapping those electric gauntlets onto his hands. I couldn’t help but pick up on a hairline fracture in the left one. Next to him, the metal suitcase sat open and empty. It was easy to figure out what had been inside.

  “Yeah, I think so,” I said. “She…she looks just like her, you know? Hikari. Only the colors are all messed up.”

  Riley paused, halfway through strapping on the second gauntlet.

  “Are her powers the same?”

  “I don’t know, but it looks like it so far.”

  “Well, that’s going to complicate things.”

  The doors slid open. Riley rose to his feet, securing the last strap on his gauntlets and picked up the case. We moved forward as one.

  Jane led us down a hallway and to a locked service entrance. I kicked it down, glad to channel my anger toward something destructive. This process was repeated when we hit the door to the roof, which I knocked off its hinges.

  And on the other side stood Dawn.

  No, two Dawns.

  The differences were clear, thanks to the colors, but it was still disturbing. They spun around each other, fists flying wildly, capes twirling, shifting back and forth between ducking and delivering blows. And then Black and Blue switched it up with a high kick that sent Dawn flying backward toward the edge of the building. She hit a stone barrier, no more than waist high, hard. I heard something crack in response. And as painful as that looked, I knew that had that barrier not been there, she would have gone over the edge, easily.

  And then her body blurred for just a second before going back to normal.

  “Shit,” I murmured. She was running out of juice. If Black and Blue hit her like that when she was out of costume…

  I took a step forward.

  Riley’s gauntleted hand latched onto my shoulder.

  “No,” he said, voice firm.

  “What?!”

  “If that had been you,” he pointed at Dawn, who lay slumped against the wall, “that would have been a broken back. She can heal. You can’t. This isn’t your fight.”

  “Bullshit. I can—”

  “Knock the building down beneath our feet? Read the situation. This is not the most ideal place for you to throw down.”

  I turned my head back to Black and Blue, who was stalking her way toward Dawn. I watched as Hikari began to rise to her feet, but her movements were stiff.

  Her image flickered again.

  “Then what are you going to do?” I asked Riley, teeth clenched. “You’re not wearing any armor.”

  And Riley,
to my astonishment, let out a low chuckle.

  “Well,” he said. “Usually I just have Jane shoot them in the back.”

  He flipped a switch on the side of his right gauntlet and a low hum filled the air. Black and Blue must have sensed him coming, because she paused, shifting her weight to turn toward him as he drew close.

  Just in time for Riley to smack her across the jaw with the metal suitcase.

  Black and Blue let out a cry of frustration, then swung her left toward Riley in a sloppy jab. In return, he pulled up the case in both hands, holding it in front of him like a shield. Black and Blue struck once, twice, three times, every blow pushing Riley backward, the sound of crunching metal filling the air as Riley’s one source of protection crumbled like cardboard beneath her strength. What was he trying to pull? His attacker’s blows were furious, but unfocused. He could have easily ducked all three. It was clear that his “shield” was not going to last for much longer.

  Clear to everyone but Black and Blue at least. Because when she leaned in to attack again, instead of striking the case, she grabbed it. Her goal was clear. She was going to tear that thing from Riley’s hands.

  Which she could have done, had she been a little bit faster. Had she not given Riley time to activate the gauntlets.

  Electricity arched around the gauntlets and the case, traveling through the metal suitcase and up Black and Blue’s arms. She convulsed as the current ran through it, her image blurring, just like Dawn’s did when she was running low on power.

  The current cut off and she fell backward, shaking her head. Riley’s gauntlets let out one last spark, and then the soft hum that had filled the air since he activated the gauntlets died out. Riley looked down at his hands and frowned.

  “Well, shit,” he said.

  Letting out an angry, feral snarl, Black and Blue pulled herself to her feet. She reared back, ready to deliver a punch that skinny little Riley could not take.

  So, it was a good thing that Hikari had made her way back into the ring.

  Standing behind Black and Blue, I watched as she raised her arms in a double-fisted blow, her body, for a split second, flickering back to Dawn. As her fists descended I found myself wondering if she would have enough power left to land that punch. If she would run out at the very last moment, like when she had tried to save Calypso from falling to her death at the Grand Bailey.

  And then both fists smacked Black and Blue at the back of her head, and Dawn’s opponent went down.

  As she hit the floor, she transformed back to the version of Dawn I had seen on the ground below, her dark haired tangled, the bottoms of her jeans ripped.

  “Huh,” Dawn—the real Dawn—said, clearly out of breath. “That’s—”

  But before she could finish, the last of her power left her, and she collapsed. By the time she hit the ground, she had also transformed. Her face, cushioned by that red scarf of hers, lay inches away from the girl that looked just like her.

  13

  Dawn

  Not all memories are worth revisiting, not even in dreams.

  I’ll never forget how uncomfortable that courtroom was, the awkward feel of the wooden bench beneath me, and how difficult it was to stay still. For the most part, I kept my gaze down, away from the judge in his black robe, from the lawyers, the prosecutor…

  And, of course, from David Adler, the man responsible for ending my father’s life.

  I didn’t really listen to the sentencing, despite knowing how important it was. The day my father received justice for his killer, a man who, after a rotten day of work, had too much to drink and decided to drive home across the East River Bridge. The same bridge my father was crossing.

  I closed my eyes, shielding myself against my own imagination, the sounds of twisted metal and screeching tires. From the sight of David Adler’s vehicle darting over the center line of the narrow bridge, and of my father in his Subaru, with no place to escape.

  Tears fell down my cheeks in salty, sticky lines. Every time a new tear fell, I felt my stomach twist in embarrassment and the urge to duck my head lower. My mother, who sat on my right, was also crying, but at least she managed to be composed about it. She was still working as a doctor after all, writing her books in random bursts of time on evenings and weekends. She could remain calm under pressure.

  To my left my brother sat completely still. His eyes were dry, his face blank. Only his hands, pressed firmly onto the tops of his legs, betrayed any tension.

  I sniffed, the single noise echoing around the room obscenely loud as the judge took the time to look through his papers. I tucked my head down, holding back a sob. It wasn’t until I felt my brother and mother rise next to me that I knew it was time.

  Limbs stiff, I awkwardly made my way toward the door, my pace picking up the closer I made it to the exit, opened for me by a bailiff.

  And then I started to run.

  I sprinted down the long hall next to the courtroom, heading to the bathroom I had seen on the way in. I burst through the door, and immediately ran into one of the stalls, my hands fumbling with the lock. It was only then that I let that long-held sob rip from my throat.

  I raised a hand to my mouth to muffle the noise and squeezed my eyes shut. What was wrong with me? My father had died weeks, no, months ago. We were almost a full season from his funeral. Hadn’t I cried my last tears the moment they had lowered his body into the ground? In the time since, I had felt very little. Turning down every offer my friends made to hang out at the mall. Ignoring my boyfriend’s calls. When he had eventually broken up with me via text, it was strange how little that had meant to me.

  It had been both better and worse when school was still in session. The constant press of other people around me had been suffocating, far beyond the level of discomfort I usually felt in crowds. But at least then I had been going somewhere. At the beginning of summer, I rarely left the house. By the midway point, I rarely left my room, spending much of my time in bed.

  My mother urged me to see a therapist, set up appointments with a grief counselor. And while my sixteen-year-old self would have normally done anything to impress her, I had completely ignored her. As someone who had never really had a teenage rebellion phase, my actions must have left her in shock.

  I pressed my face against the bathroom stall door, my emotions screaming to life with an overwhelming level of rawness. I wanted nothing more than to find a valve or switch in myself to turn it all off. To retreat back to the numbness that had consumed me for the past few weeks.

  I distantly recognized the screech of the bathroom door opening and shutting.

  “Dawn?”

  I blinked. It was Alan. Twenty-year-old Alan who, despite his crazy-busy life, always took the time to pick up my stack of comics for me every week without being asked or expecting a thank-you in return.

  I didn’t have the heart to tell him I barely read them anymore.

  “You’re not supposed to be in the girl’s bathroom,” I blurted out.

  “I figured the current circumstances provided a reasonable excuse,” he said, his voice calm and cool. He sounded older than his actual age, had always done so. Probably a defense mechanism developed after graduating high school at fifteen, college at eighteen, and starting his master’s degree last year, at nineteen. It was also a way to make up for his appearance which, due to his shortness, made him appear even younger.

  It was probably why he had gotten in the habit of wearing suits all the time.

  “Are you…do you need anything?” he asked.

  “N-no,” I replied.

  “Are you upset about the sentencing? I know that it may sound lenient, but when you examine Adler’s lack of—”

  “It’s…no. I’m not upset about that. I just need some time alone.”

  “Oh.” My brother paused. “Well, I didn’t mean to intrude. Just wanted to…Please let me know if there is anything I can do.”

  With that, he turned and walked from the bathroom, shutting the doo
r behind him.

  And a whole new wave of guilt hit me.

  What kind of a sister was I? Just turning away my brother like that. If anything, the loss was harder on him. Sure, we both had been close to Dad, but Alan…he didn’t have many friends. I was the embarrassing socially, awkward one, but while my social circle was small, at least it existed (or at least it had, before all of this). Compare that to Alan, who had rushed through school, skipping grades left and right, moving too fast for anyone to get a handle on him…

  Alan had lost a father too. Did he need to lose a sister as well?

  I reached down and fumbled with the cool metal of the lock and exited the stall. I saw myself in the mirror and was suddenly waaay grateful that no one else was in here. My blotchy face was a super-attractive mixture of snot and tears. I did my best with the water and paper towels in front of me, but there was no getting around how red my eyes had become.

  I sighed, hoping I would encounter minimal people outside of this restroom. I walked to the door and opened it wide.

  Only to find myself face to face with my father’s killer, his hands secured in cuffs.

  I jerked back with surprise. What was he doing? Wasn’t he supposed to go to prison now? Wasn’t that why we were here?

  And why were his eyes as red-rimmed as mine?

  “I just want to…” He paused, swallowing. “You left before I could…”

  “Hey!” I heard someone cry from down the hall.

  “I’m sorry,” Adler blurted out. “I’m just…I know words are cheap and there’s no way to ever bring your father back, but I need both you and your brother to know how sorry I am for taking him away from you. You see, I have kids too and—”

  I froze, unable to respond, giving Alan enough time to jog down the hallway. I can imagine that most people in my case…well, a certain level of physical restraint might be necessary. But I was too stunned to move and Alan…Alan doesn’t run hot when he’s angry.

  “She doesn’t owe you anything,” he said, his voice like ice. “We don’t owe you anything.”

  “I know,” Adler said, shirking back. “I just wanted to say—”