Fear response - Part 6
Pictures, videos, descriptions. Nothing did the man justice. He floated before Caitlyn, his white cloak rippling in the wind. The white uniform, with the golden, diagonal slash across the upper part of one side of his chest, stood in contrast to his smooth, flawless black skin. He gave her a warm smile, holding out a huge hand connected to an arm with perfect musculature, and Caitlyn could do nothing but smile back. Not that he could see through the blank, black mask of her suit.
"If you will, Miss, I'll carry Fear for now." He wrapped his arm around the waist of the man he had called 'Fear' and, with his other hand, invited her down, back to the building. "Let's talk a little closer to the ground, shall we?"
He flew. Not like Caitlyn's fast-floating, but could actually fly. She knew this, but the awe-inspiring figure moved at the same pace as her until they reached the building once again, their feet touching down upon the concrete floor at much the same moment. To Caitlyn's horror, the vision of perfection released Fear, brushing dust from the murderer's shoulder. Caitlyn began to move, but the god-like man raised a hand to stop her, that smile never leaving his handsome face.
"What are you doing? You can't just let him go! He killed my best friend!" She tried to push the man's hand aside, but she may as well have tried to move a mountain. Infuriated, she turned on him. "You're Principle! It's your job to stop people like him!"
"I can assure you, Fear has never killed a single soul." Without looking, Principle waved a hand to the side. "He used subterfuge and trickery, nothing more. Your friend is quite safe and unharmed."
"Oh. My. God!" Alaina's voice and Caitlyn almost cried again as she turned to see her friend skipping toward them, clapping her hands. "Best. Day. Ever! Hey, Cai ..."
She stopped as Principle looked toward her, a playful scowl upon his face, holding up a finger to his mouth and making a 'shush' sound. That finger moved to his ear, tapping it as he moved his eyes to look to the skies beyond the open sides of the building. He looked toward Fear and Fear nodded before moving away like a shadow creeping along with the movement of the Sun.
"A surveillance drone. Commercially made, modified, but I can't tell by whom. No fingerprints anywhere on the surface or inside." He looked back down toward Caitlyn and gave her that genuine, effective smile. "Someone is watching. Fear will deal with it. Now, Miss, how high can you fly?"
"She can't fly. At least, not yet. We're working on it. She sort of ... floats. Fast. Um ... Mr Principle, sir?" He turned his beatific gaze toward Alaina and Caitlyn saw her legs wobble. "Can I have your autograph? A selfie?"
"Later, Miss Allen. Right now, you're friend and I need to talk in private. If you don't mind?" His politeness wasn't an act. Not one bit of it. He returned his gaze to Caitlyn. "Would you care to join me, Miss?"
He rose into the air, giving Alaina a wink, and waited for Caitlyn to float up from the floor too. Leading the way, Principle flew at a fraction of his normal speed, out from the side of the building and up and Caitlyn could do nothing but follow him. She glanced over her shoulder toward the waving Alaina and only now did relief flood through her that her friend was alive.
She had blood, or something that looked like blood, covering her clothes and throat, but, other than that, she looked perfectly fine. Subterfuge and trickery, Principle had said, meaning that everything that had happened was also a trick. A trap set up by Principle? By Bastion, the super-team, or by the hand of the man called 'Fear' alone?
Lost in her own thoughts, she realised that she had lagged behind and Principle waited for her to catch up before looking upward and continuing to rise. Higher and higher and Caitlyn refused to look down. Not until they passed through a cloud and Caitlyn couldn't help herself but laugh. Even through Black Staff's suit, she could tell passing through the cloud felt like walking through fine rain, not fog, and, as they passed through the cloud to the other side, Principle came to a halt, turning to face her.
He gave her a few seconds to acclimate to where they had flown and Caitlyn looked around her, turning in a circle and seeing for miles around. She was above the clouds, and not in an aeroplane! She reached down, her red-gloved hands touching the last, trailing wisps of cotton candy clouds. Under her mask, she knew her eyes couldn't widen any further. Away to one side, she saw the towers and skyscrapers of New Hastings rising up from the ground.
To the other side, she saw mountains, miles away and, to the north, another city reached glittering fingers of glass-covered towers and spires to the heavens. Arclight City. Home of Principle. The most beautiful, technologically forward, and expensive city on Earth. A marvel of the modern age. Much like the man who floated beside her, silently allowing her to revel in this incredible, bewitching new situation. Something occurred to her and she span around and around, searching desperately.
"We're not going to be hit by jets, are we?" At her words, Principle laughed. Not mocking, or at her, but with her. It was a valid concern as far as Caitlyn cared. "I don't want hundreds of lives at risk because I'm playing at being a bird."
"It's fine. I'm keeping an ear out for everything. There isn't a jet within ... ooh, fifty miles? Give or take." He inclined his head and Caitlyn knew he wasn't guessing. This was Principle. He could hear a pin drop light years away. "Now, Miss Carter. You have questions, I'm sure. We can talk here, no-one can see or hear us. Trust me."
"How do you ...?" She began to blurt out but reminded herself, it was Principle. If anyone could tell who she was under Black Staff's mask, it was him. "Alright, questions, right. Okay. What the hell? Like, seriously, what the hell? Was this a, I don't know, a test or something? Pretend to kill my best friend for ... I don't know. What possible reason could you have to do that? I almost killed that man for what I thought he'd done!"
"It's fine." Principle, one hand behind his back, waved the other as though refusing the wine list at a restaurant. "I'd have stopped you from killing him."
"No. No! I had my fingers around his throat." She remembered how it felt, to want Fear dead. And she had. She had really wanted to squeeze the life from him. "I wanted to ... I was going to ..."
"I would have stopped you." The voice lowered, became more measured, reassuring. As was the little look he gave her. He really would have stopped her. At any time. "But, you didn't. You stopped and that says a lot about who you are as a person. It says a lot about your upbringing. Your Aunt has done a remarkable job under such very trying circumstances. You are a fine, good young woman, Caitlyn. May I call you 'Caitlyn'? I apologise if I'm being too forward."
There he was, Principle. Leader of the world's premier super-team, Bastion. He had fought gods and monsters, had died and returned, had travelled to far-off worlds and through different dimensions. He called other heroes friends. The likes of Swift, Minerva, Trooper John and then Trooper Jane, Menhir and Puppet. And he knew who she was. It was enough to spark a million journal entries. If she actually kept one.
"It's fine." She felt embarrassed to be even in his proximity. Out of place. Someone who had, somehow, found herself wearing a dead man's clothes. "Why, though? I really thought my friend was dead. That was cruel and unnecessary. And, you know what, Fear is a jerk! I'm hurting in places I never knew existed and ... and ..."
"I hope you can understand, Caitlyn. We had just lost a very dear friend. He was my best friend. And there you were, wearing his Black Element and involved in some terrible destruction." He waved a finger at Caitlyn, raising an eyebrow. "Though I see you've made some changes. I like it. It hides your gender and age so no-one can use that against you. Clever. But, I digress, we needed to be certain and the best way to see a person's true personality, their real self, is to, I'm sorry, traumatise them. If you were ever going to be a villain, or a killer, we would have seen it in those dark moments. I truly am sorry."
"Forget it." Caitlyn felt glad Principle couldn't see her pout beneath the mask before realising he could see through it. Both her hands covered her face, but he could probably see through them, too. He could probably see her burning cheeks, too. "So, what now?"
"You do what you think is best. We'll watch over you, from time to time, but we won't interfere unless you ask for it. That was the arrangement we had with Black Staff and I see no reason we can't continue that with you, if you want to. Superheroing isn't for everybody." He pointed down, back toward the ground and raised an eyebrow. "I think you need training. Combat, detective skills, threat deescalation, but I think you did well with Blockchain, so maybe not so much of that one. I'll have Trooper Jane contact you for combat training. There's no-one else on Earth I'd trust more with that particular task."
"Trooper Jane?" Caitlyn had had a crush on Trooper Jane ever since she had picked up the shield after Trooper John's death. Her throat became dry, but she tried to remain calm. Nonchalant. "Hell yeah! Is she as tall in real life? Did she really hold off a hundred enemies with only her shield and a baton? She'll contact me? Wow! Just ... wow!"
Nonchalance? Failed. Remaining calm? Failed. She couldn't understand how the mask hadn't burned away completely from the heat of her growing embarrassment.
"So, what do we call you? The super-you?" They descended, Principle acting as though they were taking a stroll. "I hope you don't mind, but I'd prefer we retire the 'Black Staff' name."
"Blood Obsidian? Because the suit, with all these red threads, kinda looks like one of those ..." Caitlyn trailed off as Principle looked at her with an utter earnestness. He genuinely cared what she thought. "Blood Obsidian. That's who I am."
For better or worse, she thought to herself.
-+-
Somewhere on the outskirts of New Hastings ...
Raymond Alden watched the video of the battle with Fear while the blood transfusion took place. Debussy played in the background as he tried to relax, but, even after the third watch, he cringed at every blow that Fear had struck. The girl had no idea that the dark hero from Bohemia City had put everything into that fight and she had given him one of his hardest battles. Without any training.
"Good for her." He paused the video as Principle arrived, moments before the drone had become destroyed. The ice cubes clinked in the whiskey as he took a drink. "Good for her. She'll need all the help she can get."
He started the video again, watching every movement, every strike. Filing everything away in a mind that would soon become lost to the world. Lost, unless his plans came to fruition, and he would see to it that they did. No-one could stop Raymond Alden once he set his mind to something. No-one.