Black and Blue Read online

  Steve turned to him, putting on his most welcoming smile.

  “Hey there, can I help—”

  “Do you run this place?” the kid asked.

  “Um…yes. My name is Steve—”

  “I need to speak to Hunter Davies.”

  Steve froze, his next words dying on his lips. He opened his mouth and shut it twice before speaking. “I…you must mean the Hunter Davies comics. Unfortunately, they sell out fast. The Hikari issue didn’t last twenty-four hours. But Pixie Dust fans will be happy to hear—”

  “I don’t mean his comics. I mean I want to speak with Hunter Davies.”

  “I…” Steve shook his head in bewilderment. “I’m sorry, son, but no one knows who Hunter Davies really is. We don’t even get his comics the normal way. They just…show up.”

  “You’re a fucking liar, man.”

  And with that, he reached up and pulled off his hoodie. Like Sunshine, he was also Asian and college-aged, but that’s where the similarities to the perfectly coiffed young woman ended. His hair had once been styled into a crew cut but was now overgrown. His dark eyes were bloodshot. His mouth twitched downward.

  Not that Chrissy had much time to focus on that. She was a little more concerned about the fact that after pulling down his hood with his left hand, he had taken out a gun with his right. A gun he pointed at Steve’s chest.

  “Marty?” Sunshine pipped up from across the store, her voice a high-pitched squeak.

  “I know he’s here,” Marty said. “I’ve done my research.”

  He paused to shake his head, as if disgusted by the thought.

  “Hey,” Steve said. “Let’s calm down. I’d be happy to help you in any way I can. There’s no need to bring out a weap—”

  “Oh, please!” Marty said. “You weren’t answering me before. And don’t talk to me like I’m stupid.”

  He took a step forward as he spoke, drawing closer to Steve. Chrissy froze. She was standing next to Steve, just a single step in front of him. If Marty’s gun just swung a little in her direction…

  “Everyone thinks I’m stupid,” Marty continued. “Dumb-ass bro douche. Only…she didn’t. She trusted me…Trusted me with everything…The Mistress.”

  “Shit,” Rick said.

  Shit indeed. A little over a month ago, the press had reported that an Empowered woman named Calypso had kidnapped close to fifty people, using her mind-control powers to make them intensely loyal to her. When she had been killed facing off against Hikari, her followers, called “drones” by the media, had been disconnected from her. And the results…well, it almost seemed like being under the thumb of a crazy supervillain had been better for them. The police had managed to gather up all but one. Many were depressed, even suicidal, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. The ones that had been with her the longest had to be institutionalized. A handful of the drones had been allowed to re-enter society, although they were required to frequently check in with doctors and therapists hired by the BCPD to keep an eye on their mental state.

  Every single one of these drones had once referred to this Calypso as their “Mistress.”

  “Listen, Marty?” Steve said, making his voice gentle. “That’s your name, right? Marty? I understand you’ve been through a lot.”

  “The fuck you understand,” Marty spat out.

  “Okay, well…maybe I can’t really understand. But I know that something terrible has happened to you. Something that was not your fault. Marty, your parents have been looking for you for weeks. They love you very much.”

  Marty snorted beneath his breath. “Love? What do I give a shit about love? It’s nothing compared…” He shook his head. “She was the center of my world, man, and now she’s gone. I need to get her back.”

  “Marty, I know this is confusing, but Calypso—”

  “Don’t say her name!” Marty pointed the gun at Steve.

  Chrissy had never wanted to be that type of Costume, the kind that ran into burning buildings—even for cats. She had wanted to make a difference. The outfits were a means to an end. All she knew in that moment was Steve, who had been so nice to her awkward, teenage self, was going to get shot. And well…she couldn’t let that happen.

  So she took one step to the left.

  The gun exploded in Marty’s hand, and Chrissy jerked backward into Steve. She lost her footing, and the two tumbled onto the floor.

  “Oh, my god!” she heard Rick say, his chair scraping against the floor as he pushed back from the table.

  Weirdly enough, she didn’t feel any pain at first. She was on her back on the floor, lying perfectly still while everyone around her moved. Steve scrambled toward her in a crouched position, while Rick dropped to his knees on her other side. She looked up and forward to see Marty pacing back and forth.

  “Shit, Chrissy,” Steve said. “Your shoulder.”

  Ah yeah, she had been shot, hadn’t she?

  At the mention of her shoulder, pain exploded. She let out a gasp, then a sob, her mind unable to form words. Her experience with pain had been limited until this point. She had never broken a bone. Never sprained an ankle. The worst injury she had experienced was cutting her arm on a metal fence while getting out of SynergyCorp for that stupid photo shoot. At the time, she had been shocked at how red her own blood was.

  And now it was pooling beneath her.

  “Wrong, all wrong,” Marty mumbled beneath his breath. “Shit. You were supposed to help me.”

  Behind Marty, Chrissy could make out Sunshine, ducked behind a display of figurines. She held her phone in her hand. Had she thought to call the cops?

  “This is your fault,” Marty said, swinging the gun back around and toward Steve. “You were supposed to help me. I’d do anything for the Mistress. Anything!”

  The bell on top of the door rang, and before Chrissy could comprehend what that meant, a fist came toward Marty’s face. He went flying across the room and into the glass counter. He crumbled to the ground.

  Chrissy blinked and looked up, expecting to see Hikari standing above her, rescuing her like that pile of kittens.

  Only the person she saw was much bigger and darker.

  From this angle, he looked like a giant. He was dressed in black body armor that even covered his face. Her blood ran cold at the sight of him, distracting her from her pain.

  “Faultline,” Sunshine whispered from her hiding place.

  Faultline. He was one of the villains from the Hunter Davies comics, albeit a complex one. Unfortunately, there was nothing complex about the way the drones had described the real Faultline. He had been Calypso’s right-hand man, the mastermind behind the plot to kidnap several of Bailey City’s most prominent citizens. He was Empowered and didn’t need mind control to stay loyal to the mistress. No, all that took was money.

  And now he was standing above her.

  Without a word, he turned to Marty, who lay on the floor in a heap.

  “Man, I’m surprised you had the courage to show up,” Marty said with a cough. “You traitor—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Fautline had smashed his head against the concrete pillar that held up the roof of the store. Marty went limp, probably unconscious. Faultline reached down to pick him up, bracing himself by resting his spare hand on the glass countertop.

  “Wait,” Sunshine said, taking a step forward. “You’re not just gonna take him, are you? His parents…the police have been looking for him for weeks.”

  “That’s not your concern,” Faultline replied, his voice deep and low like Rick’s when he was Captain Justice. Only with Faultline, it sounded scary.

  “The hell it isn’t,” Sunshine snapped. “Listen, I’m far from Marty’s biggest fan, but I’m not gonna let him get taken away by some monster—”

  The glass beneath Faultline’s hand fractured into spiderwebs, cutting Sunshine off.

  “Get help for her,” Faultline said, nodding back toward Chrissy.

  And with that, he picked up the
unconscious Marty and threw him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He exited the store without another word. The world began to blur and fuzz as the bell on the door rang once more.

  “Hey! Hey!”

  Rick’s voice brought her back to the present. She looked up and saw him crouched above her, his masked face creased in concern. He had forgotten to deepen his voice.

  “I’ve called nine-one-one,” Sunshine said. “They’re coming.”

  “Stay with me, darling,” Rick said, tears forming in his eyes. “You’re gonna be just fine. Damn. I knew you were brave, but…”

  “Ricky,” Chrissy said, raising a hand. “I want to retire.”

  2

  Dawn

  It had to be the same bench.

  A few weeks back, Alex and I had shared gelato here, our feet planted on the concrete sidewalk, overlooking the pier at dusk. After our pastry-fueled pre-date, and inadvertently abandoned first date, it had been nice to sit down and finally talk. I had left our conversation feeling every notable romantic cliché. Butterflies in the stomach. Heart racing. Mind all a flutter. I knew I wanted to see Alex again, and soon.

  Then the benefit had happened.

  The Harvest Ball was one of Bailey City’s standard charity events. Only this year, things hadn’t been so standard. This was thanks to Callie Saunders, more commonly known as Calypso, who had used the annual event as an excuse to kidnap four people. I had been just newbie Costume at the time, using my powers in my efforts to protect city. After infiltrating the Ball (well…maybe infiltrate was too strong a word. I did have an invitation after all), I had tracked down the would-be victims alongside a local cop, Detective Amanda Bronson. Unfortunately, we had also run into Faultline, Calypso’s lead henchman and all-around scary guy. After being shot and falling off a moving tram, I had experienced a bone-crunching landing several stories below.

  It was, I was beginning to understand, all part of being Hikari. Fortunately, another part of being Hikari happened to be accelerated healing abilities.

  I had certainly pushed them to the limit that night.

  After my crash landing, Faultline had taken me to Calypso, who, I learned, intended on stealing my powers. Only at the last moment, Faultline had turned on Calypso. The transference had failed, setting the events into motion that had led to Calypso’s death and me transitioning from nobody Costume to Actual superhero.

  Yeah, things had been a lot less complicated before all of that. When I had just been a girl on a date, trying not say something stupid. For once.

  “Apparently, November is not a good time for gelato.”

  I looked up to see Alex and couldn’t help but smile. He was dressed in a brown leather jacket over a white T-shirt, a look that was incredibly James Dean, if James had possessed the body of Chis Evans. He smiled, and I had to hold back a little sigh. I know. It’s a cliché, but Alex was that good looking, with his brown hair, lightly tanned skin, broad shoulders, and slightly crooked nose. It made me wonder why he had even looked at a scrawny weakling like me.

  In place of gelato, he held two steaming cups that smelled delicious.

  “I don’t know how you like your coffee, but I figured I couldn’t go wrong with hot chocolate,” he said.

  “That’s great,” I replied, reaching back to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “I prefer it, actually.”

  “Then my instincts were right. May I?”

  I nodded, and he took a seat next to me, passing over one of the cups. I reached out with one gloved hand (fingerless gloves, not the ones I wore when I was Hikari, although both pairs were black). For a moment, I just curled myself around the warmth from the cup.

  “I’m really glad you agreed to meet with me,” Alex said. “To be honest, I kind of thought I was pushing my luck. For the past few weeks it’s been—”

  “Radio silence, I know.” I dropped my gaze. “I’m sorry about that. I meant to contact you. It’s just…” I paused, shaking my head. “For weeks, it seemed like it was too soon. Then suddenly, it was too late.”

  “But…that does sound like you’ve been thinking about me, right?”

  I blushed, my lips tugging upward into a smile. “Well…maybe.”

  “Maybe?”

  “Okay, definitely.”

  “Phew, I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one still interested!”

  I laughed, looking up at him.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Come on, Dawn,” he said with a smile. “Would I lie to you?”

  Before I could reply, a gust of wind came up and over the water, sweeping my shoulder length black hair up and into my face. (Ugh! That’s attractive. Thanks for ruining that moment, nature.) We looked out and over the pier, hearing, oddly enough, the sound of bubbling water, as if the ocean was boiling. Alex placed his cup of hot chocolate next to the bench and moved to his feet, lips pressed into a frown. I paused. Did the sky seem cloudier than before?

  A dark, bulky figure launched up from the water, pushing himself impossibly high into the air. He landed ten feet away from us. I felt my breath catch in my throat. I’d recognize that helmet, that body armor, that impressive height anywhere.

  Faultline.

  “What the fu—” Alex began.

  Before he could cuss appropriately, Faultline strode forward, crossing the space between us in three massive strides. Reaching back, he struck Alex across the jaw. His head snapped backward.

  “Alex!” I gasped as he crumbled to the ground.

  I spun toward Faultline, transforming as I moved. Instead of my street clothes, I now wore the costume of Hikari, red pants, a black top, and a black cape decorated with a pattern of stars. It was easy to see why people had called me “the Red and Black Woman” for weeks before Hunter Davies had given me my Actual name. My jet back hair turned bright red, my identity shielded with a black mask. I also grew about six inches and put on some serious muscle.

  I wasn’t scrawny little Dawn any more.

  Faultline moved first, swinging at me in a flurry of fists. I ducked right, then caught his next incoming blow with an open palm. Wrapping my fingers around his fist, I shoved him backward, sending him stumbling across the pier. Faultline was crazy strong, but so was I.

  “You’re going to pay for hurting my date,” I said, every trace of shyness gone from my voice.

  I strode across the boardwalk only…had he somehow vanished? How had I missed that?

  A heavy blow struck me from behind. I fell to my knees.

  “Your date?” Faultline’s voice boomed from behind me. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

  I didn’t want to look. I couldn’t. But still, I felt my head turning, as if on its own accord. My neck craning up until I was looking Faultline in his face.

  And he wasn’t wearing his helmet anymore.

  It was like the rug had been pulled out from beneath me all over again. Alex. Faultline was Alex. How had I forgotten that? I had remembered him saving me, of course. The moment he had broken free of Calypso’s fragile control, stopping her from stealing my powers. But this moment, the realization that the dark, threatening figure of Faultline and the open, kind Alex were one and the same had somehow been wiped from my memory.

  “Hold her down. Hold her down.”

  I blinked, and the world seemed to shift beneath me. I wasn’t on my hands and knees anymore. I was flat on my back, looking upward from the ground. No, the floor. Made of seafoam-green tiles. Two men stood on either side of me, although I’m not sure why I assigned them genders. They were faceless, almost formless, all hands and arms pinning me down.

  Fear filled me. A different type of fear than I normally experienced as Hikari. It wasn’t fear that prompted me to act, to do something fast. No, this was mindless terror. I kicked and struggled, my body doing its best to break free. Break free? I had super-strength. This shouldn’t have been a problem. Only…I wasn’t Hikari anymore. I was dressed in loose white clothing, like I was in the hospital or something. Wh
ere was I?

  “Okay, now. Time for a little lie-down,” a female voice said.

  I watched as a third figure approached, a hypodermic needle in her hand. I could feel my eyes widen, my breath quicken, sweat beginning to pool on my face. My panic increased until only one word could escape my lips.

  “N-nooooo. No-no-no-no—”

  Bam! The woman jerked in surprise, as if struck from behind. She crumbled onto the floor, and suddenly, I was free, with no arms holding me down. I looked up, blinking in surprise.

  Hikari towered over me, mouth spread into a confident grin. She rested her hands on her hips.

  “Seriously, Dawn? What would you do without me?”

  And then I woke up.

  There was a reason I didn’t take daytimes naps.

  Unlike most people, who seemed to find the occasional siesta invigorating, I woke up even sleepier than before. It felt like I had taken every minute of rest I had supposedly gained from said nap, and then subtracted it from the sleep I had gotten the night before.

  Which, given that I had been running around as Hikari until three in the morning, hadn’t been that significant to begin with. I thought back to the list of rules I had once created for myself, the “how not to screw up being a costume list.” I was pretty sure that there was one on there about remembering to sleep. Of course, I wasn’t a Costume anymore. Thanks to Hunter Davies, I was an Actual Superhero now. How much had that really changed things?

  I groaned, pushing myself into a sitting position. The rest of my bed was a sea of schoolwork: my laptop, a book for English novel, labs from chemistry. It’s a good thing that during the first half of the semester I had been so focused on staying ahead. Now, with my nighttime antics turned up to eleven, I was struggling to keep up. My only Wednesday morning class had been canceled, due to Professor Andrews getting the flu. And I had felt all types of guilty when that text message had filled me with more relief than concern. Now I would have time to catch up on my homework. Unfortunately, my body had possessed other ideas.

  Speaking of my body having other ideas, I looked down to see that I had costumed up while sleeping. I frowned at the red and black outfit. My bedroom door was shut and blinds were drawn, so my identity was fine. But still…this wasn’t the first time that I had transformed like this. Several months back, when my powers had been new, the transformation from Dawn to Hikari had been a conscious thing, requiring me to close my eyes and take a couple of deep breaths. Now, this was the third time I had transformed without thinking about it, and all three had happened when I was stressed out.