"It's you who's wrong. Nicole isn't the villain, you all are. She's shown me the truth about our so-called heroes, and now that I know you're one, I can't believe we were even friends in the first place."
~ Mary Thompson (Midnight)
Celeste hated going out in the daylight with her super villain costume on. She felt too exposed in the sunlight. Her white and grey tinted suit was blindingly bright when the sun reflected off of it. Not to mention it made her look too much like a superhero. Those self-obsessed egotistical heroes liked to have a name associated with the light, and thus their costumes were usually light as well. (Haven't you ever noticed how so many heroes have the word white in front of their name?) Celeste didn't like being associated with those heroes who only cared about their next publicity stunt.
So, why wear white? The answer was simple. Snow and ice weren't exactly dark things. Whenever she fought with her powers, she was able to hide in her snowstorms a lot easier than if she was in stark contrast to them. Plus, it gave her the excuse to wear the white wig that hid her raven black hair.
But, back to the point. Her contact who was going to trade in the necklace she'd stolen from the Schows wanted to meet in the late afternoon instead of their normal night schedule. It was a Sunday, so she had no real excuse to re-schedule the meeting. It's not like she had a family dinner to get to or friends to hang with.
"Artic Frost."
Her contact opened the door on the far side of the alley way. Celeste looked around for any onlookers and then dashed through the door. It was the side entrance to a comic book store in downtown. The place was a new franchise started from somewhere in Washington DC. It also happened to be a good cover for the black market super dealings of this location's manager, Scott Stone.
"So, what do you have for me today?" He asked, an eager smile on his face.
Celeste smiled and pulled out the diamond necklace, sparkling in the light. She placed it on the counter and smirked wider. "Isn't it a beauty?"
Scott was visibly impressed. "Wow, you would've thought the Schows had this thing under lock and key, it's practically priceless."
Celeste shrugged, "Maybe they do on a regular basis, but they were going to a fundraiser for the police department. Mrs. Schow had to keep her prestigious reputation up. After all, they probably won't even miss this piece. Judging by how much they pay off the department with, they probably wipe their butts in hundred dollar bills."
He laughed and picked up the necklace, "Yeah, this is your best score yet."
Celeste nodded and hid her pride. Think of how much money she'd make off of this one. Certainly enough to where she could lay off stealing for a while. She could take a small break from villainy for a couple of weeks or even months if she wanted to. The money from those diamonds would be enough to help her usual patrons, maybe even more people than normal.
"Great, when do I get my money?" Celeste asked straight to the point.
Scott shrugged. "Depends on how fast I sell these individual diamonds, but don't worry, that's never a problem." Celeste watched as he touched one of the diamonds, as if demonstrating how easy they were to sell, which they were for him. Scott was a super who could shape precious metals, meaning he could get rid of the serial number on the bigger diamonds so that they could never be tracked by the police.
(Of course this came in handy when the police were being paid off by the people you stole the necklace from.)
"Alright, I'll stop by sometime next week. I'll see you later, Scott."
Celeste walked out the door and paused. Something felt wrong. She immediately lowered the temperature around her and manifested an icicle in her hand. If there was danger, she wanted to be prepared.
As the frost gathered around her, Celeste felt calmer. It was probably nothing.
"I see you come prepared."
Celeste turned and fired. The icicle in her hand flew with sharp precision, hitting an inch to the left of a dark figure in the alley way. "That was a warning shot."
The dark figure stepped forward, a man in a suit. Well, he wasn't so much a man as he was a boy. It was then that Celeste recognized him. It was that son of the multimillionaire, the guy who owned Rossi Corp. Celeste only even knew of the company because they had their hands in the pockets of most of the upper class white trash who she stole from. This kid meant business. If he was willing to surprise a super villain and approach her without the fear of getting killed on principle, he had some balls.
"Artic Frost, you don't scare me one bit."
Celeste narrowed her eyes. Okay, did this guy seriously think that insulting her was going to score him any points?
"You know that I can freeze all of the water in your body with one wave of my hand, right? I can pierce your heart with an icicle without a second glance. I could even get creative and lower the temperature around you to below zero, so that you die a slow cold death."
He shook his head. "If you were going to pull through with your threat I'd be dead by now."
Celeste bit her lip. She didn't like it when people called her bluffs. She couldn't kill this guy, not when she didn't know who he was or what he wanted. Besides, killing him could be more trouble than it was worth seeing as he was extremely rich and powerful.
"What do you want?"
"Don't worry," he assured, "I'm not asking you for that much. I just want to hire you for a small job, something worth your while."
Celeste narrowed her eyes. "No job is small and worth my while, besides, I'm not in need of cash at the moment."
"What I'm offering you is worth more than cash."
Celeste widened her eyes. What could the son of a business tycoon offer her besides money? A lifetime supply of stocks?
"How do you think I was able to find you?" He asked rhetorically. "Rossi Corp has their business in everything. We know this is your spot to exchange stolen goods. We also happen to have information on your nemesis, Wild Fire. I'm offering you access to his identity."
The offer was good, almost too good to be true.
"What makes you think I can trust you'll bring your payment?"
He shrugged. "The simple fact that if I don't you'll come after me. I don't want to make an enemy of you, Artic Frost. I want to offer you a sign of friendship."
"Alright," Celeste agreed after thinking it over in her head. His connections were went wide and far, there was a large chance he was telling the truth about knowing Wild Fire's identity. "What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to track down a person of interest. There's a new super in town, a speedster. He is the only suspect in my father's recent shooting, and this afternoon he came by the hospital to finish the job. I want you to find him and bring him to me."
Celeste crossed her arms. "I'm not anyone's basset hound. I steal, I don't track down supers."
On the outside Celeste was calm, but on the inside she knew what the kid was talking about. Somehow Paul Rossi was dead. This new super must've shot him, and finding out he was unsuccessful, came back to finish the job. By tomorrow morning it would be all over the news that Paul Rossi was dead, but she wondered if the new super would be mentioned at all.
"Think of it as I'm hiring you to steal a person and deliver him to me. It shouldn't be too hard given your track record. The only hard part is tracking him down, the rest is simple."
Simple? How could any of this be simple? She didn't have the resources to track down anyone, especially a super. And if this super just killed Paul Rossi, they were quite dangerous as well. Celeste had never gone up against someone with speed, so she had no reference point to work off of even if she eventually found him.
"I need somewhere to start."
He shrugged. "That's not my problem."
Celeste narrowed her eyes, "How do you expect me to find him then? It's not like I have the money and resources to track him down. All I have is snow and ice."
"Then draw him out," he offered, "make a scene and wait for this new speedster to appear, ready to fight you."
Celeste scoffed. "Yeah, like that'll work. Every time I appear anywhere in public, Wild Fire shows up to ruin my day. How can I make sure this guy comes before my nemesis?"
"Not my problem."
"Why are you going through all of this trouble?" Celeste asked, curious. "Why not try and hire Wild Fire to get this guy instead? This speedster seems more like he hangs with my crowd if he is killing a prominent member of the community. Why would he try and stop me if I'm making a scene."
He chuckled darkly. "Trust me, this person thinks of themselves as a hero. They will come."
If this guy hated heroes so much, it would explain why he wasn't hiring Wild Fire instead, even though it would be easier if he claimed he knew his identity.
"Fine, I'll do it. Where should I bring this speedster if I find him?"
"The top floor of the Rossi Corp building. If you have this man, my guards will let you in."
She nodded. "Alright. I think we have a deal, Mr. Rossi."
He flinched and Celeste smiled. This guy snuck up on her, she wasn't going to make him feel comfortable. She may as well remind him of his father.
*
*
*
Wild Fire was out doing a routine patrol around the city. He didn't know what made him do it, but for some reason he decided to roam the poverty ridden streets of Oakland on patrol instead of the area around his own neighborhood. Maybe he was hoping to pick a fight that day.
He guessed it was just luck that he happened to stumble upon his arch nemesis, Artic Frost.
From their last fight, he knew she had been injured, but obviously it was not enough for her to pause business as usual. He was about to call her out, but then he noticed who she was talking to.
What was Artic Frost doing with Trevor Rossi?
He knew the Rossi Corp business had a lot of questionable projects, but conversing with a super villain? That was an all-time low.
Wild Fire could technically arrest Trevor Rossi for this. Even being associated with a super villain could get you a huge fine, or even time in jail. Wild Fire had the power to arrest anyone involved with super business, and that included sons of CEOs of huge companies.
But Trevor left before he could make a move, leaving Artic Frost alone in the alley way. She didn't look happy, but, yet again, the villain never looked happy.
He was about to go down there and strike when he heard a voice in his ear.
"You can't go after Artic Frost."
Wild Fire sighed.
"Why not?"
The voice on the other line huffed. They'd had this conversation many times before. "She isn't doing anything wrong by talking to this kid, and we have no liable cause to catch her right now. She probably doesn't have her stolen necklace on her right now and she isn't in the act of doing a crime. Besides, if you try to sneak attack her there's a good chance she'll beat your ass again like yesterday. You may have got a shot in, but she still escaped. Did you forget that superheroes can only arrest a super villain by seeing them in the act of villainy?"
Wild Fire pouted. It wasn't fair.
"You would be able to catch her on sight if she was an A-level villain." The voice offered.
Yeah, but Artic Frost was only listed on the B-level. All she did was steal. To land a spot on the A-list you had to be suspected of murder, which Artic Frost was not.
Sometimes it made him upset that his arch nemesis had some form of morals.
"But, she's not."
The voice crackled a bit. "Yeah, be glad. Something tells me if she wanted to kill someone to make it to that list, it'd be you."
Wild Fire was glad for his friend's level of humor.
The voice on the other line was a friend of his who he knew from elementary school and part of his sixth grade year before she switched high schools. When her mom died, her father moved her out to a poorer neighborhood that he could afford on a cop's salary. Mera Deauxma was a good friend, and she was the only one who knew his identity. She was wicked with computers, so she was always able to alert him to the nearest crime to stop. Without her he wouldn't be able to stop half the crimes he did.
"Mera, any idea what the son of Rossi Corp's CEO could be doing talking with Artic Frost?"
There was a long pause on the other line, he couldn't even hear typing on the other end. And then, "I . . . I think Paul Rossi is dead."
"What?" Wild Fire was in shock.
"Yeah, some news sites are just now reporting it. It couldn't have happened more than an hour or two ago."
So Trevor Rossi was already out and about only hours after his father's death? That behavior didn't seem at all suspicious.
"I thought he was just in the hospital," Wild Fire argued.
"Yeah," Mera agreed, "but then he had some sort of freak heart attack. Or, at least that'd what they released to the media. Here, I found a security camera footage of the incident." There was a pause as Mera watched the footage. "Okay, so there's never a clear view of his face, but a kid walks in Rossi's room, stays for a couple of minutes, and then when the alarms start going off, warning about Paul's heart stopping, Trevor opens the door and what looks like a blur flashes by him."
"A speedster." Wild Fire confirms,
"Yep. If you ask me, Trevor probably thinks this super murdered his father and he's hiring a super villain to find and kill him."
Wild Fire considered it for a moment. "Yeah, but what if we got there first?"
"How do you mean?"
"I mean, we find this new super and ask him what happened. Chances are he may be a rouge vigilante, an anti-hero, or a straight up gun for hire. He may even be innocent, but we can't let a super villain decide it for him. He deserves to be judged by a moral hero rather than a villain."
Mera sighed on the other side. "Sometimes you and your hero speeches make me tired of this whole business."
Wild Fire laughed, but then sobered up. He had a serious proposition to get to. "Um, Mera. It would be a great help if we had another set of eyes out for this new guy as well."
He could just imagine Mera's eyes darkening. "I hope you think you're talking about White Knight, because if you mean Kingdom City's other spandexed hero, you have me mistaken for someone who doesn't hold grudges."
Wild Fire sighed. "Mera, it's been over a year. Can't you just talk to Tay-"
"No."
It was a lost cause. He knew it, but he still wanted to try. Wild Fire would just have to hope he would bump into her on the street or something to warn her to watch out for this super. Though, it would all be much less complicated if Mera would just decide to talk to her old best friend.
"Fine, while you have your super smart computers looking for a sign of him on the web, tell me the next crime you have on your radar."
He heard typing, "Sixth and Main. Robbery in progress at an antique store."
"Thanks."
Wild Fire would have to wait until later to catch his arch nemesis in the act of a crime, and he'd have to wait to find this new super in town. For now he would do what he always did, he would fight the crime in this city.
Ooh, we learned quite a bit. Trevor has hired Celeste to find Xander, he full heartedly believes Xander killed his father, and Wild Fire is working with Xander's crush from school! Wow, who expected that?
The idea just sort of popped in my head one day to make Mera work with Wild Fire. It gives her a better connection to the superheroes and makes her more than a love interest. We'll be learning more soon, hopefully.