The city lights glittered in the night, spread out before her like a reflection of the star studded sky. Silver Shield let her black booted feet dangle over the ledge as she scrolled through her phone. The light splashed across her face and made the silver of her hair seem to shimmer. A short blip of static pulled her from her idle thoughts. A mellow voice called from the earpiece settled in her left ear, "Silver Shield, report."
She tapped the earbud quickly and then held down the tiny button on the second tap. "All quiet," Silver reported. Her voice came out rough and gravely thanks to the voice modulator hooked into the lining of her suit collar. The line went dead when she let go of the button so she could resume her lazy scrolling.
"You're not even paying attention," Black Star called out from a few paces behind her. Even at a distance, his sudden appearance still made her jump.
"Jesus, Star, I've told you not to sneak up on me. It's creepy," Silver snapped, willing her pulse to settle.
"It was barely sneaking, you just weren't paying attention," he paused before adding, "again." Star sauntered forward to lean against the low ledge beside her. Unlike Silver's mask which included a thin film to obscure her eyes, Star's mask was little more than delicate silver wires that swirled and looped across his face like metallic galaxies. The eyes themselves were twin pools of a solar system far out of the reach of Earth, or so Star told them. "A fish would make a better watch dog than you."
Silver swung her left leg back over the ledge so she could face him without contouring and twisting herself around. "That seems a bit extreme," she muttered. A loose piece of gravel tumbled off from her movement and bounced off her boot. She freed another from its uncomfortable position under her thigh. "Besides, I've never been the lookout. That's you. I'm the muscle." She flexed her slim arms.
"Just a pretty face then?" Star dodged a punch aimed at his shoulder. "I'm only joking, Silver, take it easy."
"I'm surprised you're not out trying to play house with Solar," Silver joked. A twinge of guilt rippled up her chest when she saw his flinch at the jab.
Silver didn't often bring up the golden girl, Black Star's counterpart. It was an unspoken rule amongst most of the caped heroes that the relation between the two of them was a subject best left to those involved. Between the two human vessels and their otherworldly co-inhabitants, that was plenty of people already.
"You know she avoids night fights, not her timezone," Star mumbled. "Unless Rift makes an appearance. He's been mercifully absent recently." As if on instinct, they both looked up and down the city below them. Merifield's night life was picking up as the winter holidays approached. Shoppers scuttled by the bright store windows making plans and concocting schemes. A horde of delivery trucks stopped along their routes between stores and moving trucks headed for buildings that had been vacant until now. Temporary shops always seemed to pop up around now.
Somewhere out there, the less than desirable people of the city were scheming too. They were taking their time and looking for the moment to strike. Most of them were harmless, petty thieves who maybe had some extra help up their sleeves. They couldn't have made their robberies and attacks easy by keeping it to the normal guns and getaway cars. It seemed that for every powered super there was a super charged miscreant.
Silver thought back to only last week when Surge and her shockingly daring tricks had knocked her off her feet. All the rubber soles in the world couldn't fully protect her from the electricity Surge liked to shoot her way. The arcing blue lines played havoc with her enhanced biology that gave her the strength she relied on to keep herself and her city safe.
Luckily, Silver hadn't been alone that day or the other woman would have left her out of commission for days rather than winded for a while. That would have been a dead giveaway that she wasn't all she seemed when she was out of the suit. Keeping her identities separate was tied for first in her priorities with saving lives.
"Quiet tonight," Black Star commented. The stars in his eyes shifted minutely as he looked from one end of the street below to the other.
"Are you complaining, princess?" Silver asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She saw the lights in Star's eyes glow brighter, a sure sign the other entity in his body was trying for full control. The princess, as they had all taken to calling her after she explained their human tongues could never hope to properly speak their language, often bullied her way to the surface and suppressed her human host. She had gotten lucky in her landing place and found someone so willing to share every part of himself. Her counterpart had not been so lucky and more often fought with his host. Silver didn't envy him.
Star swatted at her knee. It had all the effect of a gnat flying into a pane of glass. Few could match Silver in strength and durability. "No complaints here." They both jumped when Silver's phone blasted a cheerful jingle. "I'd bet Orion's belt that's who I think it is."
"Hush, go find a telescope or something," Silver muttered as she pulled the phone to her ear and reached into her suit collar to flip off the voice modulator. "Is everything okay?" Her free hand fiddled with the black cape that trailed behind her. The silver threads that lined the hem and outlined the shield insignia on her back caught the street lights that bled into the night air around them.
"I'm fine, babe. I was just calling to see if you were on your way home," Jake answered her worried tone with complete calmness. Across the city, he shifted the phone to his other ear and held it between his head and shoulder. His fingers delicately traced the crisscrossing wires in front of him while he tried to match up what he was seeing with the sketched out diagrams spread open on his lap. The rubber gloves made the process minutely more difficult but better this than a nasty shock of an errant fingerprint. Even so, his mind was working on a new design in the background. Could he insulate just the fingertips?
The metal security panel swung slowly as if it would close and he nudged it back open. Costume planning could happen later, there was work to do. The small clicks of her wire cutters echoed through the empty exhibit hall he'd carefully snuck himself into. Would that be something she could hear through the phone? Jake pulled his hood up more securely to help muffle the rebounding sounds.
"Nah, I wish," Hannah's voice came through, mixed with the background of passing cars and a steady breeze. "I'm going to be here a bit longer."
Jake figured she'd be on the hospital's roof, hoping to catch a glance of a passing cape. She often found her way up there on her breaks. He'd most likely interrupted her during a long session of scrolling through videos or playing the most recent game she'd downloaded from an ad. Anything to temporarily detach her mind from the work she was elbow deep in. "They really overwork you," he scowled.
In front of him, a green wire twisted over and around the bundle he had resting in his hand. The schematics in front of him showed nothing of the sort. How was he meant to be in and out like the brilliant mastermind he claimed to be if he had to stop and correct people's work on the go? The offending wire slid upward with the rest into the base of the display case, but its other end split off and made a hard left away from the rest. What were the chances it was fake and unimportant?
"They don't, it's just how it is. Sick people don't exactly schedule their hospital visits based on shift changes," Hannah said. "Well, I guess some might."
"Yeah, I know." Jake sat back on his heels and gave the schematics one more cursory glance before reaching out and snipping the black wire that was next on the list written for him. All was quiet and his racing heart steadied. "You coming over tonight?" he asked, slamming the phone to his chest a second later to muffle the alarms that started wailing from all around him.
"What is that?" Hannah's came through softer, as if she was holding the phone away from her ear now.
"Smoke alarm, you know how touchy that damned thing is. You leave one little crumb in the toaster and the whole system thinks there's a raging inferno." He called over the ear piercing chimes. "Anyway, my place?" he asked, throwing his things haphazardly into the zippered pouches on his belt.
"I'll try. Hey, Jake, I gotta go, something came in. Someone I mean, a person, patient, with the hurt and all that. Be safe alright? Try not to set yourself on fire?"
"But then I could see you and get my burns treated by my favorite nurse," he joked. The following laugh was a bit muffled as he adjusted his mask and prepared to pull the red cowl back over his mouth.
"Whatever, dork. I'll see you later."
"Bye, Hannah," Jake tucked the phone away with the rest of his things and jumped to his feet, face fully hidden. He'd cut the feed for the cameras before they entered, but after the subpar schematics he didn't trust the rest of the intel he had for this place.
"What is that noise?"
He sighed and refused to face the shorter man running to his side. The whining and nagging was sure to start any moment and he had no intention of having a visual aide from his annoyed companion. "Those would be the alarms, Knightmare."
"I thought you disabled those!" Knightmare shouted, bouncing from foot to foot. The half sword at his side clanked in its sheath. A faint purple glow spilled out from the top and trailed his movements like a thick mist. "If you can't turn off an alarm, what was the point of taking this job, Hijack? Alarms should be basic."
"Alarms are basic, but not even I can turn things off completely if I have botched information," Hijack jabbed a finger at the treacherous green wire as if that would explain everything. He didn't get the response he wanted and started for the back door they'd left slightly ajar. The unconscious security guard remained unmoving, surrounded by the same purple mist that fell from Knightmare's sword in waves.
Surge isn't going to be happy about this," Knightmare said as he followed at Hijack's heels.
"If her majesty thinks she can do better she's welcome to blasty her way in herself," Hijack snapped. He wrapped a gloved hand around the doorknob and gave it a sharp tug. "We'll have to try this again another night. The goody goods are probably on their way here already." He stepped into the chilled autumn night, glancing around the deserted alley.
"Hijack, why am I not surprised it's you?" Silver Shield said from behind him. She sighed softly and pushed away from the alley wall she'd been leaning against. Her thick booths thudded against the concrete.
"Am I becoming too predictable?" Hijack grinned under the thin red fabric, voice muffled and slightly computerized. "You know I only live to entertain you. I'll just head off practice, shall I?" He made a move to leave down the alley, only to be pulled back when she tugged his arm. Slender fingers dug in with a strength that bordered on bone crushing. He'd be lucky to escape without a bruise.
Silver slammed him back against the wall and he knew that would be a bruise. "What were you doing in there?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, Silver Sucker?" Hijack nodded towards Knightmare behind her, giving her just enough of a heads up to move out of the way or the purple sword that swung at her side. She fell into a roll and Hijack sprinted by. Tendrils of purple smoke curled over his shoulders and dissipated in front of him.
"Slow down, I haven't even gotten to chat with you," Black Star called out as he dropped into the alley. His light gray boots made almost no noise as he allowed gravity to gently drag him back to the ground. The stars etched into the underside of his cape twinkled as the black fabric billowed to mimic the night sky. Star's right hand curled into a fist at his side and he punched it forward abruptly.
Hijack pulled up his bright red cape and fell back as the blast of barely visible black energy melted into it. "Typically, you're a shoot first talk later kinda guy. I'm just trying to respect your preferences," he explained. Before another blast could hit him, he leapt back to his feet and glanced at the band on his wrist. "I was really worried I wouldn't have enough juice, but you and Solar never disappoint with your cosmic blasts of idiocy. Thanks for the quick charge."
The watch face on his wrist made a high pitched chirp and a green check mark flashed on the screen. Two quick bursts of vibration went through his boot soles and he hopped to smack his heels against the pavement. A glow started from the toes and quickly spread in a circle around the tops of the soles before they launched him into the air. Hijack fought for his balance for a second and straightened up by the time he was able to see over the roofs of nearby buildings.
Below, he could see Knightmare slash at Silver Shield, sending a wash of brilliant purple light past her side. She tumbled to the side and shot forward. Her hand grazed his wrist and they fell away. "Hand," Hijack shouted as he shot forward towards the ground. Gravity and the force of the boots propelled him forward at breakneck speed. The momentum took him and Knightmare back up in a wobbly but fast arc.
Black Star made a run for him, his feet lifting off the ground until another blast of purple shot toward him. It would have slammed into his chest if Silver Shield hadn't pulled him back by the cape. She braced herself with her back foot to keep them both upright but had to drop and roll them both to the side when a metal disc rocketed towards them.
"Courtesy of Surge," Hijack called, awkwardly tapping a flashing button on his watch. The disc burst into a ball of blinding blue electricity. It branched out in every direction like a static smoke bomb. In the sudden confusion, Hijack and Knightmare zipped over a building and fell out of sight.
Thanks so much for reading this first chapter. This is the start of the second draft and hopefully it lives up to the expectations I have for it. If you're returning, thanks for coming back! There is some new stuff but don't be too surprised with how often you get that deja vu feeling.
See you all next week!