“A car was found floating in the Ohio River this morning.”
Liz, Eric, and Ms. Dillon watched as the WPXI anchor read the news just like she had done every day before that. Liz was watching in horror. Eric had a stubborn grimace on his face. Ms. Dillon didn’t know what to do with the mugs of coffee she had just gotten for them. The anchor described Victor O’Neill as the shot cut to his Buick coming out of the river. The red heart was a smudge on the golden hood. Playing cards were floating in the river around it; some were stuck inside the car’s windshield. Before the anchorwoman went to the next story, Eric turned the TV off and grasped the remote tightly in his hand.
“What do we do?” Liz asked, reluctantly accepting her coffee.
“We have to find this guy, right?” Ms. Dillon suggested. Eric wouldn’t take his coffee so she set it neatly on the coffee table (on top of a coaster, of course).
Liz nodded her head furiously. “Yeah. Yeah we have to find this son of a bitch.” She started towards the door,
grabbing her coat and scarf off of the
doorside rack. It was, after all, snowing in April. Ms. Dillon soon followed, but Eric stayed looking down at his toes. “Eric, come on. Let’s go!”
“No.” Eric whispered.
“What?” Liz tried to make eye contact with her partner, only to find him avoiding her gaze.
“Look, the King of Hearts is doing exactly what he told us. He gave us a deal and we didn’t follow it. Four people are already dead because of us. Jesus.”
“No. No, you said yourself. It’s not our fault that he’s murdering people.”
“Yeah, but it kind of is. This whole thing is a revenge plot to teach us a lesson. Well, you know what, lesson learned. I quit. Cobalt no more.” Eric finally started towards the door, holding his tender ribs. Liz and Ms. Dillon were dumbfounded, standing perfectly still. “I’m going to have a normal day at the library. If anybody would like to join me, they’re more than welcome.” He slammed the door behind him and a long silence followed.
Ms. Dillon looked at Liz, noticing the tears swelling up in her eyes and the way her fist was clenched. She walked over to Liz and coaxed her down onto the couch. “Are you okay, bud?” she asked.
“I think so.” Liz took a big gulp of her coffee. “Do you think I should quit? Being Siren has been my whole life for so long, but I can’t help but agree with Eric. I mean, he got his ribs broken for me. I don’t know what kind of person I would be if I didn’t repay him at all.”
“If you think you should quit because it’ll make the people of Pittsburgh safer, then you should absolutely do it. But don’t quit just because you think it’ll make your boyfriend happy.”
Liz put her head into her hands and sighed heavily. “I’m gonna quit. Siren no more.”
“Okay. Come here.” Jessica Dillon embraced her adoptive daughter.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do with myself.”
“We’ll do what we do every day. We’ll go down to the library and make the world a little better.”
————————————————
Over the next six weeks, the city was pretty quiet. Crime actually went down. David Allen’s crew was told to stop wrecking the city a few days after they realized Siren and Cobalt were gone. A virus came and went with the help of one Dr. Ackatakkatakka. Things went back to normal in Pittsburgh, or as normal as they could get with how things have changed. Summer was coming around, so the library was getting busier. Ms. Dillon gave Liz and Eric an entire day off so they could spend some time together as a couple. They slept in that morning. Eric even got up early and brought Liz breakfast in bed. It was just a turkey sandwich and a bowl of ramen, but it’s the thought that counts. They spent the rest of the day watching their favorite movies. Eric put on the deluxe edition of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns for its adherence to source material and Peter Weller’s peculiar performance as the dark knight. Liz put on My Cousin Vinny for its comedic value and surprisingly accurate representation of the legal system. They finished off the night by going to Eat ‘N Park, the place for smiles. Eric ordered a breakfast combo and Liz ordered the club with fries. Their meals had been done and paid for for a good thirty minutes before Liz spoke up again.
“So, how was band practice yesterday?” Liz asked, taking a sip of her iced tea.
“I really think Honorable Discharge may get back on its feet.” Eric explained. “Tanner’s still amazing at the mandolin and Jo is surprisingly good at the violin for only playing for a year.”
“Who’s Jo again?”
“One of Tanner’s roommates. She understands my love/hate relationship with Scott Snyder.”
“Wow. Should I be nervous?”
“Not at all! You know how sexy I find it when you recite obscure legal facts.”
Liz leaned in and bit her lip. “Did you know, contrary to popular opinion, it’s legal to drive without shoes on?”
Eric put both hands on the table and leaned in as far as he could. “Really?”
“It’s actually more safe to drive barefoot than in many forms of shoes.”
“Oh, I could lather you in fucking butter.” They gave each other a quick peck on the lips before Liz pulled away and slammed her hands on the table.
“I have to go to the bathroom.”
Eric plopped down into his seat. “Okay, don’t fall in. And if you find any weird, Lovecraftian creatures, make sure to take pictures.”
Liz got up from her seat. “Will do, love.” She took her headphones out her pocket and put them into her phone as she went into the stall. She sat on the floor next to the toilet and opened the police scanner app.
“We’ve got a Code 4 at Bingham and 10th. Repeat. Situation is under control.” A man’s fuzzy voice came through her headphones.
“Damn.” She looked forward and saw a barrage of permanent ink graffiti on the side of the stall. One piece jumped out at her. It was the Siren insignia. Somebody came into this bathroom and drew the logo that she designed on the wall. This lifted Liz’s spirits a little bit. She even cracked a little grin. Her moment of peace was interrupted by her phone vibrating loudly. She looked down. It was a text from Tanner:
“Hey. Come down to the book-cave whenever you can. This might be important ~”
————————————————
Tanner Bishop sat in the book-cave in the basement of the Yorba Public Library. He was wearing pajama pants and a hoodie that looked suspiciously like it came from his girlfriend. He was watching a YouTube video on his supercomputer about which objects are safe to microwave. Surprise: most aren’t. Liz opened the door to the basement at 1:14 AM.
“Please tell me the important thing isn’t that I can’t put my boots in the microwave.” She said.
“Well yes and no.” Tanner said
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m just fucking with you. But seriously, don’t put your boots in the microwave.”
“I won’t. What in the hell are you doing down here, Tanner? The basement’s off limits now.”
“No one told me that and I didn’t care to ask. But that’s not the point. I was checking the old com system, because I put a lot of work into it and I want to take care of my code babies. That’s when I found this.” Tanner pulled up a notification. The program was called “The Charade”. It had an icon of a white bauta mask:
679661111897 - 31302971
Do with this information what you want
-C
“I thought only your programs could send notifications.” Liz pointed out.
“That’s what I thought too. I was trying to find a hole in my encryption or a bug or something, but then I started thinking about the message. Those aren’t just random numbers.”
“Those are account and routing numbers for a bank account.”
“Exactly. So I ran it through every bank in the state. That didn’t pull anything up. Then I went to the whole country and I found a match. It’s an account from a small bank in Idaho registered to a Clarance West, which is-”
“One of David Allen’s earliest aliases. How did we not find this five years ago but this Charade person did? Who are they?”
“I don’t know. Whoever they are, they’re on our side. From what I can gather, the account’s been largely dormant since Dave’s arrest, as you would expect, except for quarterly deposits from Knuckle Duster himself, Mark Moreno.”
“How much is there?”
“Millions.”
“So this is the King of Hearts’ honey pot?”
“Looks that way, yeah.” Liz backed away from the computer and started pacing around the room with her arms firmly crossed. Tanner turned to face her. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know. If we drain his account, then he can’t get his product out and it might force him out of hiding.”
“It also might force him to do something drastic. We’re talking about a guy who poses dead bodies for fun.” Liz stopped pacing. She walked over to the computer and looked at the message. A silence fell between them. Tanner spun around in his chair “Wanna give it to charity?”
“Fuck it, let’s bankrupt the bastard.”
————————————————
David Allen awoke at 8:09 AM to a loud banging on the door of his mostly empty apartment. He slumped out of bed and stumbled towards the door as the banging grew louder and louder. “Christ on a fucking bike, I’m coming! Gimme a minute,” he yelled. David quickly dressed himself in a bathrobe and went to the door. He opened it to find Damien Freeman standing at the other end. “Damien. To what do I owe the pleasure? And at this hour? Come on, man.”
“Where is my money, David?” Damien asked, his good eye staring right through David’s soul.
“You know. I’ve never noticed this before, but together we would make a fully sighted person.” Damien picked him up by the throat.
“I’m not going to ask you again. Where is my money?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” David choked out. “The money auto-deposits into your account every day.”
“It didn’t today. Where is it?”
“I’m sure it’s just a glitch or something. Why don’t you put me down and I’ll grab my phone and figure this out, huh?”
“Fine.” Damien dropped him onto the floor. David massaged his throat. “Make it quick.” Allen went into his room and plucked his phone off the charger. He opened his banking app and found what Liz and Tanner had done. There was only one cent in it.
“What the fuck?” David whispered under his breath. “It’s empty. All my money, gone.”
“So you have no money?” Damien was now looming over David’s shoulder
David turned around to face his inevitable fate, to be gutted like a fish by one of his old drug partners. “Please go easy on me.”
“I will. Get out.”
————————————————
Walter Jefferson’s phone rang at 2:47 PM, waking him from his 14 hour sleep. He groggily reached for it and put it on his ear. “Hello?”
“Walt, it’s me.” David Allen’s voice came from the other line. Walter sat up in his bed and walked into his living room. There were about six or seven tables crammed into the small space, all covered with beakers and test-tubes. The blinds were drawn shut, only allowing a faint halo of light around all of his glass instruments. Walter Jefferson was an old friend of David’s from high school. He used his Dodge Neon for his dry-cleaning front company. “You did the convention center job, right? It’s ready to go?”
“Shit, you called me at this hour for that? Yeah, I fuckin’ did the convention center job. I did it when you paid me to do it, man. The superheroes back or something?”
“Not exactly. My account’s been drained. I think they did it. I’m getting even.”
“Alright, good luck with that. I’m gonna go back to sleep.”
“You’re a great friend, you know that, Walt?”
“Whatever, man.” Walter hung up the phone and started pacing towards his bedroom. He was of average height, but incredibly skinny. His white t-shirt was contrasted by his rich, brown skin. Just as he had laid down and gotten comfortable, a knock came at the door. “Who is it?” he asked. The only answer he received was a few more knocks. “Fine, I’m coming.” He lumbered towards the door, yawning and wiping the gunk out of his eyes. He opened the door a crack and was greeted by a white bauta mask looking him dead in the eye.
“What’s the convention center job, Walt?” The Charade asked. Before Walter could close the door, the Charade kicked it in. She was wearing her usual get up. This job didn’t require anything fancy. She punched Walter in the stomach and he toppled over. The leather of her gloves made the impact of her fist louder and more painful.
Walter crawled around on the floor, looking for something to defend himself with. “Who are you?” He sputtered out.
The Charade went over to him and picked him up by the shirt before giving him a right hook to the jaw. “How about you answer my question first?” She pinned him against the wall. “What’s happening at the convention center and why did David Allen pay you for it three weeks ago?”
“I’m not telling you shit, you crazy…” Before he could finish his sentence, the Charade picked him up and threw him across the room, breaking some beakers and flasks on the way. He landed on the ground covered in small shards of glass, bleeding profusely. Chemicals leached into his wounds. He screamed out in pain. The Charade walked over to him, glass crunching under her dress shoes.
“Are you gonna tell me what I want? Or am I gonna have to put you through another table?”
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”
She grabbed him by the collar and put her face right against his. “I’m listening.”
“Allen is gonna blow up the David Lawrence Convention Center. He had me make bombs to put at all of the structural points.”
“When is he gonna put them there?”
“They’re already there. He put them in as insurance in case the heroes ever came back.”
“How many bombs are there? How can they be stopped?”
“There’s three of them. They’re just simple pipe bombs, but they could still level it.”
“Where are they?”
“I can’t tell you everything. He’ll kill me!”
She punched him across the face. He went limp “Where are they?!” It took a few seconds for her to realize that she was yelling at an unconscious person. The Charade dropped Walter to the ground and put a finger up to her chin. “Not everything, but enough.” She used Walter’s finger to unlock his phone and call 911 before making her way out.
————————————————
Liz and Eric had gotten back from a night out. Eric wore a shirt and tie, sleeves rolled up. Liz wore a dress, patterned with small sunflowers. They both had a bit to drink. Giggling and sporadic questions lined the halls as they made their way into their apartment. It was 1:34 AM. They got to their bedroom, slowly undressing as they approached the bed. Eric hit his CBD vape. Strawberry. They held each other, exchanging kisses. Eric kept moving his hand up and down Liz’s back. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted into sleep.
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“I saw a burning building today.” Eric said, biting his lip.
Liz lifted her head, dazed. “What?”
“When I was walking back from my lunch break, I saw a building on fire. I didn’t do anything.”
“How did you feel about that?”
“I don’t know.” He let go of her, sitting up on the bed. He hit his vape again. “I just keep thinking about it is all.” A silence fell between the two. Liz put on a T-Shirt and looked down into the city. Somewhere in the distance, she heard an ambulance.
“Do you miss it?” She asked, turning her head towards him.
“Not really.” He said. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping, though.”
Liz perked up at this. “What do you mean?”
“Like, the past few years, I’ve been running over rooftops all night. Every time I’ve gone to bed, I mean my whole body was sore, but especially my legs. There was this pain there. It was constant. I guess my body just got used to it.”
“Weird.” Liz whispered as a knock came at their door. It was Ms. Dillon, shocked.
“You’d better see this.” She said. The two came out into the living room, more dressed than before. Ms. Dillon was in a bathrobe, hooking up her laptop to the TV. She brought up a news website. It was a shaky camcorder video of the King of Hearts.
“Siren and Cobalt.” He said into the camera. “I seem to remember us making a deal. If you stopped your naive crusade against crime, then I would abstain from murder. For the past month and a half, the people of Pittsburgh have never felt safer and there has been order. But then you drained my funds, and sent one of your friends to put one of mine in the hospital. You’ve forced me to do something I didn’t think I’d ever have to do. You wanna know what it is? Meet me at David Lawrence at 10:30 AM. Bring your friends. I’m bringing mine.” The video ended and the group sat in absolute silence.
“What did you do?” Eric asked. Liz’s head was at the floor, her eyes wide open.
“Somebody sent us the King of Hearts’ bank information.” Liz explained. “So Tanner and I gave all his money to charity.”
“Are you fucking serious? Did you even consider what might happen? You really decided to poke the bear on this one? What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that it would draw him out and that’s exactly what happened.”
“So what now? We fight him?”
“Maybe.” Liz got a text message. Her eyes widened in surprise. “It’s from Dante.”
“What?” Ms Dillon and Eric seemed to ask in unison.
“‘Come to the book-cave.’ We gotta go.” Ms. Dillon nodded. They got dressed and left.
————————————————
When they got to the library, the night was freshly cold. The sky was a stolid grey. They went in through the basement door. The lights were off. A figure was visible sitting in Turing’s chair, her outline illuminated by the battlestation.
“Siren and Cobalt.” The figure said. Liz turned on the lights to reveal the Charade. Her coat was draped over the chair, leaving her clad in just her black suit. She was sitting with her legs outstretched and her arms crossed. Her white bauta mask became visible as she turned around to face them. Her black, curly hair outlined the shape of her face. “Or should I say Elizabeth Moto and Eric Petersen?”
“So you’re the Charade?” Liz asked. “You sent us the King of Hearts’ bank info.”
“That I did. I didn’t expect you to act as quickly as you did, but you did the right thing.”
“Wait a minute.” Eric said. “Who the hell are you? How did you even find your way in here?”
“Liz already said.” She got up out of the chair. “I’m the Charade. Don’t worry, I’m a friend. As for how I found my way here and who you all are, I was just in the neighborhood, looking around Dante Knowles’ apartment when I found this.” She pulled out Dante’s flip phone and tossed it towards Liz. “You really gotta tell your recruits to hide their equipment better. It didn’t take me long to find it. Just like it didn’t take me long to reverse the signal into your com system. That’s when I saw the stunt you pulled with the Camry a few weeks ago. It was reckless, but I don’t know if I would’ve done any different. At that point it was just a matter of looking up Tanner’s license plate, which led me straight to you.”
“Look, this is all fine and good.” Liz added, “but, what is it that you want?”
“Ah yes. So sorry, I tend to digress.” She went to the back of the basement, touched part of the wall at the top, then the bottom, then the middle. She pulled Siren’s costume out of the hidden closet and handed it to Liz. “You’re the only one that can stop the King of Hearts. He’s planning something much bigger than a simple rematch at the convention center tomorrow.”
“How did she know that was there?” Eric whispered.
“Three weeks ago he paid Walter Jefferson, also known as Glycerine, to make three very powerful pipe bombs.” The Charade continued, her back turned to the librarians. “They’re all placed in the David Lawrence Convention Center. I’m assuming his plan is to set them off whenever you arrive.”
“Why?” Eric asked. “What’s going on at David Lawrence tomorrow?”
“The Tyler Tech Conference.” The Charade explained. “Not great timing on my part, but if Hearts is going for a body count, this is awfully convenient.”
“How do you know all this?” Liz asked, looking up from the purple and yellow uniform in her hands. “For all we know, you’re working for the King of Hearts. How can we trust you? We don’t even know who you are.”
“I have my sources.” The Charade turned around to face Liz. “And you may not know who I am, but I definitely know who you are.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your full name is Elizabeth Itsumi Moto.” The Charade spoke at lightning speed. “Your father, Andy Moto was an immigrant from Japan who fixed shoes, met your mother at his cobbler shop. You were in a loving family until both of your parents were gutted by Max Hillman, also known as the West Mifflin Butcher. After that, you were pushed around the foster system. Got in a lot of fights. You were stronger than all the other kids. Faster than all the other kids. You won pretty much all of them. Then you came to this Yorba Public Library where you started using your brains instead of your brawn. Somewhere along the line you got the idea that maybe things could be better. Maybe Max Hillman wouldn’t have murdered your parents if he had somebody to emulate. Somebody to make him better. Which led you right here.” She pointed down at the insignia on Siren’s costume. “This, Liz. This is who you are. You inspire people. You inspired me to try to make this city better. Don’t fight it. Embrace it.”
“Oh, do me!” Eric yelled, raising his hand. “Do me!”
“Your full name is Eric Oliver Petersen.” The Charade didn’t even change her stance, just nodded her head toward Eric. “Your father was a drinker. Hit your mom. Hit you. You stayed inside most of the time. The only sports you ever got into were archery and gymnastics. Your father told you you’d never be good enough. You mastered them out of spite. You read a lot of comic books, and when crime-fighters started popping up around the country you got excited, thought that you could get in on it with the skills you honed. Shortly thereafter you met Liz and the rest is history, as they say.”
“Liz’s was a bit more inspirational, but okay.” Eric whispered under his breath.
The Charade grabbed her coat off Tanner’s chair and walked towards the door. “We’ll be in touch. Pittsburgh’s in the supervillain game now. Things are about to get stranger than you could ever imagine. Meta-humans, giant monsters, and just plain old crazy people. You’re much more prepared to take on these threats than I am, but I’ll pick up where you left off on the organized crime front. I’ve already got a head start from your hiatus. Somebody has to look out for the little guy after all.”
“Suit yourself,” Eric added, “Those monsters you don’t fight. They tend to step on little guys.”
“Batman.” The Charade said bluntly. “Justice League Unlimited, Season 1, Episode 1. You’re not the only student of pop-culture, Cobalt. If you need me, you know where to find me.” With that, the Charade walked out of the room. Silence. Eric had his arms crossed, staring off into the distance. Liz was left looking down at her costume.
“Well,” Eric finally spoke up. “As a great man once said, ‘Everybody wants to change the world, but no one wants to die. Wanna try? Wanna try? Wanna try?’”
————————————————
Siren and Cobalt came swinging down Penn Avenue towards the convention center at 9:56 AM. Bystanders looked from the windows as blue and purple streaks flew across the skyline. When they arrived, a fleet of police cars were parked up and down the intersection, their sirens lighting up the entire block. A few hours earlier, Siren called Dani to arrange the meeting of a bomb squad. She was skeptical, then Siren told her to ask Walter Jefferson. Siren landed next to Dani Guevara. She was wearing a bulletproof vest and brandishing a pistol. Cobalt’s grapple arrow landed in the ground, followed by the archer shortly thereafter.
“What’s the situation?” Siren asked, crossing her arms.
“Jefferson gave us the locations of the bombs.” Dani explained. “There’s one in the parking garage, one in exhibition hall B, and one somewhere in the middle.”
“Somewhere in the middle?” Cobalt asked, “All the specifics of a sophomore on prom night.”
“We’ve got two out of three.” Dani said. “The bomb squad should be able to find the third one.”
“What’s the status on evacuation?” Siren asked.
“We’re working on it, but we only got here fifteen minutes ago and this is a sold out event. It’s gonna take a second.”
“Do we have a visual on the King of Hearts?”
“He’s right up there.” Dani pointed at the balcony directly above the intersection. David Allen was standing there in his blue suit, grasping his mask in his hand. He was smiling down at Siren, even waved at her. “He’s just been standing there since we got here.”
“Alright.” Siren reached into her utility belt and pulled out her grapple gun “Cobalt, you help with evac. Dani, as soon as everybody’s out of the building, you send in the bomb squad. We don’t know when he plans to set them off, but I’ll try to stall him.” She zipped up to the roof of the parking garage, releasing the grapple and running in one smooth movement.
“Of course, I get stuck with the boring part.” Cobalt started towards the convention center entrance, turning back to yell, “See you on the other side, Dan!”
Siren landed silently behind David Allen. As she made her toe-to-heel steps towards her opponent, he slowly drew his mask over his face. “It’s over, David.” she said. “You’re not gonna hurt anybody anymore.”
“You think that I’m the one who’s hurting people?” He turned around and pulled a large bowie knife out of his pocket. “Oh, that is rich.”
“You’re the one who planted the bombs, not me.” Siren took a fighting stance as she crept slowly towards the King of Hearts.
“And you’re the one who put me in prison!” The King of Hearts charged towards Siren, making a huge slice in the air as she narrowly dodged his attack. He quickly regained his balance, flipped the knife over and made two downward swings at Siren’s back. The knife cut through Siren’s uniform like butter, leaving two red streaks in the yellow of her costume.
As Cobalt made his way into the convention center, urging the packed crowd to leave the building, a familiar voice came from behind him.
“Nice to see you, Blue.” Before he could turn around to see who was calling him, he was struck across the head with a massive fist. The archer broke his fall and quickly sprung back up, pulling out his bow and notching one of his bola arrows. Finally, he saw his opponent. Mark Moreno was eye to eye with him, putting on another brass knuckle. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
“Really?” Cobalt asked. “That’s the best you got?” He fired the arrow at Knuckle Duster’s left side. The bolas released, tying him up in a split second. Moreno effortlessly broke free from the constraints and charged at Cobalt. The archer jumped up and attempted to strike his foe with the end of his bow. Before he could make impact, Knuckle Duster grabbed his weapon and flung it across the convention center floor. Cobalt held on for dear life, tumbling down as a barrage of tacky carpeting with the view of the Allegheny river went across his vision. He managed to get his footing just enough to not break anything on his fall. “Why in the hell is he fighting me? I’m just on evac.”
“Maybe he’s trying to stop you from getting to the bomb.” Turing suggested.
“Oh.” Cobalt exclaimed. “That makes more sense.” He looked to his right to see that he had landed directly next to Hall B. “Well, let’s not give him what he wants.” With lightning speed, the archer notched his grapple arrow and launched himself towards the exhibit hall. A swarm of people were letting out as Cobalt zipped over their heads. He landed in between a demo for a virtual reality video game system and a prototype prosthetic arm. “We got an exact location on this first bomb?”
“It’s in the concession stand.” Dani’s voice came through his headset. Turing had added her just as Cobalt broke the threshold into the exhibition hall. “Do you know how to defuse one of these?”
“No, but there’s a first for everything, right?” The blue-clad crime-fighter ran right into the face of danger, Moreno following close behind him. “I might need some assistance, Dan.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Siren was on her hands and knees, the cuts on her back slowly leaking blood into her costume. She gritted her teeth as she tried to stand up. She wasn’t even looking at her opponent anymore. It seemed as though all of her focus was on trying to get back up, only to weakly stay on the ground.
“Look at you.” The King of Hearts glared down at his nemesis. He threw his knife to the side and got down on one knee like a father giving his child a lesson. “Pittsburgh’s superhero. You know, everywhere else at least gets someone weird. LA’s got that lizard guy and his freaky kids. New York’s got that animal broad. Hell, that Macbeth guy has been practically everywhere. But we get Siren and Cobalt: a girl in a bird suit and an idiot with a bow and arrow.” Siren collapsed onto the ground, only holding herself up by her elbows. Blood dripped profusely out of her mouth. The King of Hearts grabbed her by the chin and brought his face to her’s. She pushed on him, futilely trying to break free. “You have no power. Nothing special about you. And you think you can tell people how to live their lives? You thought that just because I sold drugs, you had the right to break that up. What, for your self-righteous sense of morality?”
“You prey on the innocent.” Siren finally sputtered out between breaths. “You give them a disease that only you have the cure for. That’s how you make your livelihood.”
The King of Hearts punched Siren across the face. “But it was still my livelihood!” He yelled, holding her by the fabric of her costume “It was all I had ever known to do and you took that away from me. You took my freedom away from me for five years. What do you even have to say for yourself?”
Siren looked up at the King of Hearts and cracked a blood-soaked grin. “Made you look.” Before he could even process it, Siren grabbed two points in the King of Hearts’ forearms as hard as she could. He screamed in pain, dropping down to his knees as Siren’s purple fist came crashing down into his nose. She was able to get in a headbutt and a kick to the guts in before he hit the ground. He held his stomach, crawling away from the young superhero, now standing tall and proud over her opponent. “You’re wrong, Allen. Things have changed for the better in this city.”
“ Now that I think about it, I see your point.” The King of Hearts looked back at Siren, still holding a hand over his stomach. “This crazy world has no place for a small-time drug kingpin anymore. This is a world of supervillains. I guess I’ll just have to be the best at that now.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a detonator. He threw it towards Siren.
“I don’t understand.” She crouched down and looked at it. It was dead. “How were you going to set off the bombs?”
“The bombs are on a timer. I hit that detonator just before you snuck up on me.”
Siren leapt up and threw the detonator to the floor. She walked towards the King of Hearts, holding her finger up to her ear. “Cobalt, you need to get out of there. The bombs are about to go off!”
“Yeah, I got that!” Cobalt yelled, shakily using the multi-tool in his utility belt to defuse the bomb. Dani was giving him instructions over their com system, but it had been a while since her last training. “This one’s got ten minutes left. I’m assuming it’s the same for all of them.” Just as he said that, he pulled out the leftmost wire, causing the timer on the bomb to plummet to ten seconds. “Well, that’s just great!” He quickly attached the bomb to one of his standard arrows and notched it up. As he stood up to fire it, Knuckle Duster tackled him over the concession stand. The arrow flew at a low angle and exploded at the entrance to the exhibition hall. The roof collapsed, sending three stories of convention center falling in on eachother. Cobalt could hear the screams of civilians who hadn’t yet evacuated over the sound of himself being choked out by a dusty Mark Moreno.
“Cobalt! Are you okay?” Siren was picking up the King of Hearts and putting him in cuffs.
“Oh yeah. Fine and dandy down here.” Cobalt squeezed out between breaths.
“You little weasel!” Knuckle Duster yelled. “You ruined everything.”
“Yup.” Cobalt was pounding at Moreno’s arms, doing almost nothing. “Just like Adam.”
“Kick him in the balls!” Turing yelled over their com system.
“I’d prefer a less crude approach, but beggars can’t be choosers.” The archer launched a knee between his opponent’s legs. Knuckle Duster immediately let go, giving Cobalt the opportunity for two front snap kicks to his jaw. Performing a kind of cartwheel, the young hero picked up his bow and notched an arrow. “Stay down. Final warning. Or can you do this all day?”
Knuckle Duster got up, wiping blood off of his face with his massive hands. “Do you ever shut-” Moreno was cut off, being hit in the chest with Cobalt’s arrow. Directly before impact, the arrowhead split into three fine needles with an electric current running through it. The taser arrow locked up Knuckle Duster’s muscles as he toppled to the ground.
“Shut down your nervous system? First time, actually!” Cobalt said in a chipper tone, pulling the arrow out of Moreno’s chest and hitting him across the head with it. “Was it good for you?” As he was putting cuffs on the drug lord, Cobalt put his finger up to his ear. “Dani, I’m gonna go conduct search and rescue. I’ve got Marky Mark in the concession stand whenever you want him.” The archer fired a grappling arrow at the end of the hall, launching himself into the chaos. “How close are we to getting the bomb squad in here?”
“They’re already working on the other bombs.” Dani said into her phone, motioning squads of police officers and firefighters to different parts of the convention center. “They should be able to defuse them before they go off. Big bird, what’s the situation with Allen?”
“I’m bringing him down.” Siren said, walking the King of Hearts down a dead escalator. As she looked out the panel windows, she could see a legion of news helicopters circling around the building.
Eventually, everything in the area became quiet. There was a sense of relief among the people that were able to get out. Cobalt and the rest of the rescue team were able to pull a few dozen live civilians out of the rubble. Unfortunately, there were a handful of dead ones. The bomb squad was able to defuse the other pipe bombs that were set in place with a minute and twelve seconds left to spare. Siren was standing next to the squad car David Allen was put into, Dani walked over to her and shook her hand.
“Thanks, S.” Dani said, lighting up a Marlboro. “If it weren’t for you and the blue meanie, the body count would’ve been catastrophic.”
“It wasn’t just us.” Siren said. “We had people looking out for us. We wouldn’t have been able to do as much if you hadn’t trusted us.” It was then that Dani’s phone started to ring. It was Izzy. She asked her mother if Siren and Cobalt won. Dani grinned and assured her that they did.
Cobalt was helping a civilian in shock onto a stretcher. He walked over to join the rest of the gang in celebration. “Any word on the final body count?”
“So far, we have five confirmed dead.” Dani explained. “But it’s gonna take another couple hours of searching before we can get a full count.”
“Fuck.” Cobalt whispered under his breath. “I can’t help but think that’s kind of my fault.”
“You can’t blame yourself.” Siren put a hand on her partner’s shoulder. “If it wasn’t you, Moreno was going to fight anybody going for that bomb. You avoided taking the whole building down doing what you did.” At that, David Allen began chuckling in the patrol car, slowly creeping into full out laughter. Siren leaned into the open window. “What’s so funny?”
“You really think you’ve stopped the whole building being taken down?” David smiled up at his foe, his scarred eye glistening in the morning sun. “Oh, the naivety of youth.” The King of Hearts turned the face on his watch and pressed down on the spring loaded device. A loud beeping came from the bomb squad vans parked just under the convention center. One of the technicians could barely get out -- “No, wait!” -- before a massive explosion engulfed the entire lower section of the center. Dust shot out into the streets as David Lawrence quickly collapsed into a pile of rubble. Officers wrangled Allen out of the patrol car as he was still laughing. They did another quick search of his person, but couldn’t find anything. Not even hesitating, Siren ran into the destruction. Cobalt followed her closely.
————————————————
After hours of searching, only a select few first responders were found alive. The news reported that the death toll of the second blast was around 54, but the number was growing by the hour. Siren and Cobalt stayed until the sun went down, going through the rubble and finding as many people as they could. Siren apologized profusely to anyone she could find. Cobalt didn’t have much to say. After it was all said and done, Mark Moreno and David Allen were put into Riverside Community Corrections Center where they’ll stay until a trial can be organized. A few days after the attack, Liz Moto visited her parents at the Homewood Cemetery in Squirrel Hill. Their headstone wasn’t anything special, but Liz could still point it out from the sea of concrete before her. She stood there silently, playing music from a bluetooth speaker shaped like the USS Enterprise she had placed on their grave. It was playing the Velvet Underground’s “Oh, Sweet Nuthin’”, one of Andy Moto’s favorite songs. Liz always had great memories with it.
“Hey mom, hey dad.” Liz heard Eric’s voice from behind her. She turned around and smiled at him. “I saved the city again today.”
“Technically, I didn’t save the city.” Liz replied. “And, even if I did. That was three days ago.”
“Whatever, we caught the bad guy. Regardless of whatever aftermath followed.”
“How’d you know I was here?”
“You always have a different aura about you whenever you go to visit your parents. Plus, it’s the only time you ever touch my speaker.”
“Fair enough.” Eric joined in Liz’s silence as they looked down at the headstone. They locked hands. Liz sighed before mustering the words “Do you think they’d be proud of me?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I think they would.”
Liz cracked a grin before locking arms with Eric and leaning on his shoulder. “Do you still want to be my partner?”
“Like, romantically or?”
Liz playfully punched him in the shoulder. “You know what I mean, jerk.”
“Yeah. You know, Cobalt no more was getting a little boring, plus Tanner and I were working on a prototype arrow that I think would be kick ass.”
“What is it?”
“I can’t tell you. It would ruin the surprise. And, more to the point, I knew you never really wanted to quit. I’m sorry that I took that away from you.”
“It’s okay. You had a good reason. People were dying.”
“People die every day. I guess it’s our job to make sure they don’t die for nothing, right?”
“Right.”
-
Dani Guevara was at her fourth cup of coffee as she was filling out paperwork. The precinct was mostly empty, just a few beat officers waiting around for the next shift of detectives to come in. A knock came at her desk. She looked up and saw Charlie Petska, a good friend of Dani’s and part of the forensics department.
“Sorry, didn’t see you there.” Dani said. “What’s up, Chuck?”
“I thought you might want to see this. We found it during the sweep.” Charlie said, placing an evidence bag down on her desk. It was the King of Hearts’ bowie knife, rusty blood stains still covering it. Dani’s eyes widened. She gulped down the rest of her coffee. “What do you want me to do with it?”
“Don’t run it.” She said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, just file it.” Charlie hesitantly did so. Once Dani finished her paperwork for the night, she went outside and lit up a Marlboro. Somewhere in the distance, she heard Siren’s grapple gun go off, followed by the twang of Cobalt’s bow. She smiled, exhaling blue smoke.