Finding a person that's been missing for more than two years is hard. Finding two people who have gone missing, who also have nothing in common is even more difficult hard.
Finding said two people while the entire city faces a kidnapping crisis is even more difficult than that.
It's been six weeks since I've last spoke with the Marcus' and I've already exploited almost all the options I have. Investigating neither of the two cases have given me any leads that go anywhere, and any source of information simply leads to a dead end.
It's frustrating, but I've set my mind and don't plan on giving up any time, mostly because of the money (Callahan's mistress is willing to pay a lot) and because of Billy (simply because the idea of giving up on a missing child sits wrong with me)
So, after pouring countless hours on all of the information I had I decided to stop and look back at everything, start again with Callahan, re-evaluate everything and then do the same for all of the information I had on Billy, which was less.
Which is what brings me to one of the last locations where Mr. Callahan was seen. A place by the name of “Rogue Street”, a pretty normal street all things considered, got its name changed when a guy killed a big hero in it way back when and was big enough of a deal to get its named changed.
I've been sitting on the rooftop of a building for hours under the light of the moon, thinking on what to do next while giving glances to the city below.
The best idea would be to reach out to the police or more heroes in regards to Billy’s case, help in the overall effort to “save the day”, it isn't really investigating Billy himself but it will eventually lead up to him. As for Callahan’s case… perhaps I need to talk a little more with my client, see if she has any more ideas.
Should also take a break while I'm at it, staying awake the entire night for several days isn’t exactly healthy, even though I'm feeling fine right now.
I stay up here for some time, stuck on my own head. Before I can continue thinking though, some noises on the alley get my attention.
The sounds of trashcans being knocked over, street cats hissing and a voice reach my ears.
I take care to not make too much noise from up here while getting closer to the edge of the rooftop, looking down on the alley and inspecting the ruckus.
Three people, two of them are deeper into the alley, the other guy is just standing and looking at them.
“Hey, I just asked you something!” Yells the lone figure “You two deaf or something?”
With that outfit and attitude… He's probably a hero.
The other two remain silent, looking at the direction of the lone hero while standing in the darkness, I can't tell who those two figures are.
…Whatever, it's probably none of my business.
Just before I can even turn around the hero bursts towards the two, with enough speed that the trash and papers on the floor are being sent flying in response.
The two figures on the other side sidestepped and let the hero run right through them with an incredible level of synchronization, the largest of the two prepared himself and moved his arm just at the right time with just enough strength, hitting the hero and throwing him backwards, like if he was hitting a ball with a baseball bat.
I thought the two of them were going to pounce on him before he could get up, but they simply stood right there as the hero put himself up, he doesn't seem to be too affected by that hit.
The hero doesn't say anything, instead grimacing and running again into the two. This time the big one simply braces himself for impact.
The hero hits the big guy right in the chest with all the speed he could muster, but he giant doesn’t even budge, he instead holds the hero tightly and doesn't let him escape his grasp.
It's then that, in the darkest and deepest part of the alley (the one completely submerged in darkness), a light forms out of nothing. Surprisingly, the light quickly gets a circular shape and what seems to be a humanoid figure steps out of it.
The figure has something in its hands, a cylinder of sorts, and with a small twist of his hand some sort of gas is released, accompanied by a hissing sound as the gas escapes its containment. It quickly fills the air; the person being held in the giant's arms appears to be slowly losing consciousness.
It's then that I jump in.
Quickly putting a hand inside my cape, I take out a gift for these three and jump from the roof.
The attention of the three is drawn directly to the floor, to a clacking noise that is distinctly different from the hissing of their cylinder, there they see five small spheres which eventually explode, the newcomer being smart enough to back away before they burst.
The hero is released from the giant's arms, and as soon as I hit the floor, I quickly make my way towards him. Holding the hero in one arm as I quickly back away I throw yet another three spheres towards them, trying to make as much distance as possible.
Just as I make it out of the alley and stand right on the center of the street the spheres detonate, the smoke from the explosion blocking my view, but I focus on the person on my arms right now, who's apparently not fallen unconscious yet.
“Breathe through this” I take another item from my belt, a rebreather in the form of a small cylinder, and put it in his mouth. “You always jump in before thinking things through?” I ask him.
He coughs into the cylinder before looking at me “And who are you supposed to be?” His voice somewhat muffled thanks to the rebreather.
“That doesn't matter right now.” I take another cylinder and place it in my mouth. The smoke from the small explosions is slowly clearing out, as well as the gas from their own device, the three figures from before visible behind the smoke.
There in the alleyway they stand, two of them on each side of the alley and the third one back, he gestures to the other two before slipping into the same light he came from. The two figures remaining simply stare at us, eerily striding towards our position, ready for a fight.
As I feel the hero I just rescued slowly stand I speak again “What matters right now is making sure these two don't sweep the floor with us.”
Ohh I'm excited to see how you write the action scenes out OwO the teaser with the smoke bombs was pretty nice