Chapter Text
“Hey. North. You have that tracker, right? Go deliver it before your shift ends.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I mock saluted, running out the back door.
The cold wind slapped my face, ruining the perfect, combed, purple hair I had tried so hard to keep clean.
Whiteout slammed into the ground, already bouncing back up, tracker in his back pocket.
No.
The boots dug into my heels.
Whiteout wasn't out yet.
Whiteout only came out during the night.
Whiteout ran across rooftops and saved people.
That was Whiteout’s job.
Famine was at work.
I pulled my scarf over my nose and mouth, breathing in through the respirator. I custom-designed it to deliver oxygen directly inside and to block off all air from the environment in case anything happens.
Famine. Funny how I have to make like three separate identities to avoid everything. All my enemies. My past.
Right now, when I have to complete missions for CornerStone instead of the HHQ or vigilante duties, I’m Famine.
Characterized by the heavy cloaks, long scarves, and thick leather gloves, a thinly painted gold smile, and his random choice of weapons, AKA, whatever he could scavenge. A hitman, an assassin, and an information broker, he has to offer anything you want, at a price. Of course.
If Whiteout shows up, you’re getting saved. Sunfall is probably close on his tail.
If Famine shows up, someone has a grudge against you, particularly. Because he never shows himself to anyone but his victims. Ensuring you either don’t live to tell the tale, or do. Because he wanted you to.
You either pissed someone off royally, or you were just the wrong person at the wrong time.
That’s where Whiteout gets all his materials, how he gets to play hero. Famine’s payment.
My trusty Nightstrider at home, belt loaded instead with various gadgets like smoke bombs, blinders, daggers, arrows,
Sitting in my sheath was a half-broken axe, chipped beyond repair. Voidsplitter. Swung across my back was a crossbow and arrows. Two months earlier, I couldn’t aim to save my life, but I practiced, and now it’s one of my main methods of assassination and intimidation.
The arrows were tipped with homemade poison and barbs, as I couldn’t really find a shop that sold professional arrows for killing people.
Right, that would be a hazard.
I scaled, ran low. Famine rolled across rooftops, hiding behind walls and alleys. Whiteout leapt, jumped. Praying to be seen.
I raced up the building, scaling a storage room, observing the battle Squid is engaged in right now.
It was pretty much finished. The villain was a woman who could control bones? I assume it was bone. There were sharp, jagged white bones sticking everywhere, out of her arms, out of the ground, spikes. She was panting and mostly useless by now, moving sluggishly. This kind of power would require a much higher intake of calcium, and she would burn through it quickly.
Squid was using her lithe wings to parry and dodge. She could not have asked for a better match for her superpower.
Soon, the villain collapsed. Promptly. Pretty sure it was from exhaustion. Squid quickly made her way over to secure her and was going to leave, prompting the police on the comms to come to this location. The crowd and media swarmed around her. Taking photos of the blood puddles and her injuries.
I knew I did not have much time left. There would be too much publicity too soon, and he would not get the chance to complete the objective anymore. If I released an arrow from this ledge, they could easily see where it came from, tracking me down, and ruining how I wanted to stay in the shadows.
Okay.
This is not going to work.
Not in the slightest bit.
But there is a chance.
And it could be my only chance.
She was rounding a corner, leaving all too soon. From here, I could never get the correct angle ever again.
Shifting a little in my nest, going lower to not be detected.
I brought out my crossbow, reaching into my satchel for some epoxy resin and coating it on the tracker, praying to god it would still work. I stuck it onto a normal tipped arrow and loaded it in, a click as it got into the right position.
I waited when she was distracted, when she stopped moving for just a millisecond, because that was all I needed.
I hope this will work. If it does, it would be so cool.
Lining it up, I released it with a touch of the trigger.
The arrow flew.
Not towards Squid, who I would never get from this angle.
It ricocheted off a lamp post.
For a horrible moment, I thought I missed.
But I didn’t, a streak of rainbow flew across the air and implanted itself under the shadow of the hood. The part of the arrow broke cleanly off and fell on the ground, with a loud clang, inches away from her. Perfect.
Ping.
Thud.
Oh my god. It worked. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.
The sound of the arrow distracted everyone, with people investigating in the direction of the lamp post, and no one even batting an eye towards me. I could already imagine it, news headlines. Number fourteen hero, Squid, was almost assassinated in plain daylight?
This was going to do wonders for my reputation.
I didn’t see the way Squid’s eyes widened, how her bottom lip started quivering. I didn’t realise I picked up the arrow from a random hero chungie, the one with the HHQ emblem. I didn’t see how Squid immediately picked it up and shoved it away, while the press kept prodding her for answers. I didn’t see how she went pale, and how her eyes widened. Her mouth silently praying, I thought I had more time.
I didn’t see it. Because I was already racing across the rooftops. Too busy celebrating the best shot of my life. Crouching whenever I saw a new hero race to investigate the scene.
The arrow was centimeters away from her neck. It wasn’t a failed assassination attempt; it was deliberate. Deliberate enough to make her understand her life was in danger. That someone wanted her dead. No one in the HHQ would look her over. The danger passed. It wasn’t enough for a complete do-over or murder charges. I hope.
While whoever wanted that tracker on her looms in the shadows, preparing for a time to strike. I wouldn’t be surprised if her death was on the news tomorrow. It would be tragic, but it wouldn’t have mattered much in the grand scheme of things.
Oh my god, I hit a target three rooftops away, after making it ricochet on a lamppost.
I need to make sure the tracker is working properly first, though, so I’ll return to the cafe.
“Are you a villain, mister?” There was a small kid, short, golden hair.
“What? No.”
“Oh nice, then you’re a hero, what’s your name?” He was grinning now, red and blue jacket flaring in the wind.
“My name?” I crouched down closer to his height. “Kid, I’m on a very secret mission right now, I can’t tell you my name. Why don’t you tell me why you’re here alone?”
“Oh, my mommy is at work, and whenever she goes to work she tells me to leave the house because mommy is working and so I wander around. I love heroes, look at my sunflower pin!”
My heart ached, I didn’t know my mother, and she must have sucked to sell me to the Hero Commision, but this kid’s mother is as bad as her. That sounds terribly like neglect.
“You’re so brave, doing all that because she asked.” I desperately tried to smile. “Next time, don’t wander in alleyways okay? Go to a park, a city square, somewhere where there’s lots of people and heroes to look out for you, okay?”
“Okay Mister hero!” It was as if he could sense I needed to leave. “Would I ever see you again?”
I hoped not, that would mean something happens to you. “Maybe. Maybe then, I’ll tell you my name.”
“Goodbye then!” His smile was warm, like a field of sunflowers on a sunny day. I wanted to protect him, take him away from his mother, who clearly does not care about the right year old. Put him somewhere safe, somewhere he would never be harmed.
Pushing the door open, I let the bell ring a little, gold hair still in my mind.
“North. Don’t tell me you were paid to put a tracker on the fourteenth hero. That wasn’t you. Right?”
“Well, sorry to disappoint.” I put on my best aura-farming smile.
“Ew, put that away, you are not bagging anyone with that smile. Go. Shoo. Go to the counter and take orders. Your shifts are not done till another hour. I’m docking your pay if you just keep standing there.”
Sighing, I went to stand behind the counter to grab some cleaning equipment and clean the already spotless cafe. There weren’t even customers right now.
“WHO PUT A KNIFE THROUGH MY WALL?”
Uh oh.
“It was a sword.”
“You are going to pay for the damages and you are banned from this cafe. If you come back I’m shooing you away.”
“And what if I don’t? What if I just left?”
“Don’t test me.”
“Don’t test you? What is this little girl gonna do? Hit me?”
Zam brought out a gun.
“I can shoot this before you can take another breath.”
Apparently Zam is very menacing and the person took back his sword and paid the damage fees.
I grabbed the glue and paint from the back and started to mend the wall. The cafe sunk into comfortable silence again. There was a vigilante doing her homework. I actually know her name, Jumper. Detonate, or as we call him, Cockatiel was dozing on a table.
It was nice.
Someone was bleeding on the floor.
I’ll have to clean that after they leave. Good thing the floor is tiled, and so stained with blood a little more won’t hurt.
I loved CornerStone. It was like a second home to me. Right after the abandoned apartment building.
“Hey. Could I have a black coffee please? Normal.”
I didn’t even hear them come in. Was the bell broken again?
“Okay. That will be seven fifty.”
Dumping coffee beans into the machine, cringing when it started spluttering and hissing like an old mother cat just awoke from her afternoon nap.
“Yo, what posters are these? I haven't seen them before.”
I cast my haze to where he was looking at. A wall full of polaroids, posters, and minifigures. THe one he was looking at was specifically a very old one. In fact, it was precisely six years ago. While that was not such a long time, with how fast new heroes were replacing each other, it was not uncommon for heroes from six years ago to not be recognized.
“The green one in a hoodie was Dream, the number one hero six years ago. He was also the one who invented totems of undying. The red one was the number one villain then, The Blade. More commonly referred to as the Blood God.”
“Oh. Huh.”
He took his stuff and left.
The wall was covered with old superhero and supervillain posters. There was also the Dream Team. With 404, Inferno, and Dream. Icarus was there too, red and brown feathers open in intimidation.
“Hey, tell Clown I want my money back.”
“He’s not gonna give it back, you should just accept it.”
“No, I paid two ingots for it.”
It was just another normal day at Cornerstone.
“North.”
“Yeah?”
“Go pin this up on the wall of shame.”
“The what?”
“The wall of shame”
And she has the audacity to just walk away? What is the wall of shame?
I looked at the picture, it was the same guy Zam threatened with a gun.
Oh, I think I get it.
Looking around the back, I found a wall that definitely was not there yesterday. Pinned with pictures already.
Anybody who gets on this wall is definitely an idiot. To get themself banned on the best information gathering spot in the city.
The bell chimed again. In waltzed Sunfall. The bane of my suffering.
He doesn't even like coffee, and yet he comes in here every week. For weeks, I’ve had to endure this.
He always plopped in the same seat. The one closest to the counter so he could annoy me. There were better seats, bro. None of us wants you here.
“Hey, man, I heard you were busy today. Here. I got you some lunch.”
What.
Does bro think I can’t buy my own lunch?
“Do you think I can’t buy my own lunch?” I deadpanned. “Take it back. I don’t need it. You can give it to some random homeless dude on the way out or something. I ain’t taking that. Anyways, what are you ordering today?”
“Bro, I got this ‘cus I saw you looking at this through one of the bakery stores last week. I thought you didn’t have time to buy it ‘cus you rushed off, bro.”
So he’s stalking me now. Great. I can’t say I’m not curious, though.
“It’s the mango daifuku you like.”
“No. You’re taking that back, or I’m throwing it out as soon as you give it to me. Now, what would you like to order?”
He sighed. “A velvet cake and a coffee, please. The actual food.”
I punched in his order, “Okay. One second.”
As I was preparing the order, I could basically feel his eyes on me when he could see me.
“You know, you look tired. Why don’t you sit down with me?”
“No. I have other customers aside from you, Sunfall.”
“Aw, but am I not special? Don’t I deserve something special?” That teasing tone again. Who does he think he is?
“No. You are not special in any way or form. Just take your cake and eat.” I shoved the piece of cake in front of his nose and went around the cafe, collecting payment and tips.
A hitman mission. I’ll bring that to Zam.
“Hey. That's not what we agreed on.”
“That is exactly what we agreed on.”
Two customers were having a shouting match in the middle of the room.
“You told me he would be alive.”
“You told me to capture him.”
“ALIVE.”
The two men were both out of their seats, papers in folders spilling everywhere, people grabbing at the precious information.
“You told me to FIND HIM.”
“I NEEDED INFORMATION.”
They had their fists ready, hands ready to grab weapons. Four other tables were pretending not to listen in.
I just ask for peace. Is that not too much to ask for?
The first punch never landed. I had the first man’s collar in my fist and the second’s scruff in my hand.
“Take this outside.”
“WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETH–”
“YOU KILLED MY BROTHER–”
“Outside.”
The cafe went silent, and even Sunfall paused.
I dragged them both out of the door, throwing them on the ground.
“This cafe is not where you have your personal beef. It is written in the oh so few rules to not fight, and what’s the first thing you do? Figure it out yourselves.”
When I came back into the cafe, dusting myself off, everyone was staring.
“What?” I said defensively.
Even Sunfall was staring. Wait, no, he always does that. Or maybe he’s not staring. I can't tell with his blindfold on.
I dropped the freshly brewed coffee on his table with a little more force than necessary. With a few droplets spilling out.
“What could you possibly be staring at that is taking your attention for minutes?”
Why were his cheeks red? Was it that hot in here?
“No reason. Wait, I wasn’t staring.”
“Yep.”
“I wasn’t!”
“Yeah. Just leave a tip and leave, bro. I don’t even know why they started that fight with you here. Please don’t arrest them as soon as you walk out. The cafe still counts as neutral territory all the way to the sidewalks. Thank you.”
He does not leave. Bro.
“Wait, North, you know, are you free next week?” Why was he conflicted?
No. I’m not free next week. I have to prepare for a HHQ break in.
“Yeah, aside from work. Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking we could–you know, I just, would you, like, nevermind.”
What.
Zam was laughing in the back, coffee spilling everywhere.
He left.
Bro what was that about.
Zam was still laughing. Nearing wheezing.
“What’s so funny?”
“Noth-” She gasps for air “Nothing.”
“Then why are you laughing?”
“No reason.”
“Why?”
“You’ll figure it out eventually.”
“What out???”
She keeps wheezing. Is she going to die, is she hyperventilating?
She went to the back to get a sign, hanging it up beside the menu.
“No flirting with staff? Why?”
“You are officially hopeless.”
“Excuse me?”
“Go take the customer’s order.”
Dutifully, I walked over to the counter.
“That would be twelve seventy.”
“I’m the number thirteen hero.”
“Okay.”
“I should get a coupon for that.”
“Cool. It’s twelve seventy.”
She took her box of muffins and left. I thought it was a good price.
“Hi, can I get a latte with oat milk?”
“You just robbed the bank an hour ago.”
The television on the side of the wall was replaying the event.
“I’m lactose intolerant.”
There was still blood on his shoes.
The bell was still broken. Two assassins were politely discussing how well they were doing. How many people they got this month. Was that not an unspoken rule? To not ask a man their salary, a woman their age, and an assassin their pay?
“North, scram. Your shifts up. Here’s your pay.”
She handed me a little yellow envelope.
“1500 again? I didn’t even take that many orders?”
“You gave people trauma.”
“And?”
“Just leave. Go do whatever you teenagers do these days.”
Okay. The bell was still broken.
I was too tired for Vigilante duty today. Opting just to investigate some new heroes on the block. Detonate, for example.
Quickly, the sun was up again. Snow on every crevice and crack in the building.
I opened the door. The bell was still broken.
Immediately, the voices came at him.”
“Who won poker last night?”
“No one.”
“What?”
“The building lost.”
Sunfall was in his booth seven again.
“The bridge's closed.”
“HHQ was robbed.”
“There’s a huge flipping dragon flying around.”
I looked at the clock. It was 7:27. meaning it was 7:34. It was 7 minutes late.
I wonder if dragons can eat chocolate. Their anatomy would probably be more similar to reptiles, wait are they cold blooded? Does that mean I could be cold blooded?
“North!”
Sunfall lit up when he saw me. Quite literally, lit up. No seriously. His hair lit on fire.
This is the guy that’s killing people?
“Hey.”
I started to get my apron on. Sensing Sunfall’s eyes on me.
“So, how’re you doing today?”
“Good.”
“So,” He leaned in closer. Personal space dude, we learned about that once. Standard social distancing. “Come here often?”
“I work here.”
“I know, what I mean is like uh, uh, your hair looks good today.”
“Thank you?”
I twirled a piece of my hair in front of my eyes. I could count the individual split ends.
He looked down at his Communicator. As if reading something.
“Um.” The fire in his dreads burned higher. “What, uh, what would, would you, like, go get like lunch with me? ” His voice got so quiet at the end I couldn’t even hear him.
I leaned in closer. “Sorry I didn’t hear that, what did you say?”
“Uh, um,” He’s going to burn down the cafe.
“Sorry, Sunfall, I don’t care if you’re the number one hero. You’re in our cafe, you follow our rules.”
Zam points to the sign above me.
When did it get bigger?
‘Do not flirt with the employees
Especially: Sunfall, that random guy with a gun’
Sol got redder, before spluttering a few words and leaving.
“Why’d you scare him off?”
“What do you mean? He was literally hitting on you.”
“No he wasn’t?”
“Oh my god.”
“???”
The bell rang. Oh Zam fixed it?
“North.”
“What?”
I tore down the sign, faint blush on my cheeks.
Okay deep breaths. Serve the customer completely normally. Fight down that blush.
“Hey. Why’d I just see my rival run out of here squealing like a school girl and on fir–”
Riptide’s eye landed on me.
“Oh, I see.”
He was wearing his mask, covering the bottom half of his face. Two raven braids trailed down his shoulders, one almost undone, shadowed by the sailor’s hat still dripping despite it being clear outside. So tall he loomed over me.
Patrol jacket under his arm, soaked. That couldn’t be comfortable.
He smiled at me.
At least, that’s what I assumed. Perfect eyes turning into small crescents. Blue as the sea, he could get lost in them any day. They were calm, and steady. Unlike the ferocious waves that drowned sailors, but the calm splashes on a warm summer day.
His sleeves were rolled up at different heights. I wanted to go up to him and make sure they were at the same height. Stop that.
Wind swept hair in his face, an aura of sea salt and warmth.
The cafe somehow got quieter, as if he filled up every space, but with calm instead of presence.
Why was I evaluating him like livestock?
Zam was getting defensive.
“What would you recommend?”
Finally, someone normal.
“You look tired. I’ll get you a coffee. Rough day?”
“You have no idea.”
He brought a hand down his face.
“Here.”
Wordlessly he reached for it, my fingers touching his for a moment.
His hands were warm.
Mine weren’t.
Did I run cold? Probably.
His grip was gentle when he took it.
I watched his muscles flex, under the rolled up sleeves, oh he was strong.
“Thank you.”
I beamed.
A little too brightly.
Zam examined me.
“This is going to go well.” She murmured under his breath. “The number one hero never stood a chance”
“I mean, I do think Riptide is better than Sunfall in combat abilities, don’t even get me started on the contrasting abilities. Water can take control of the battlefield way faster and better than fire can ev–”
Riptide put his mug down softly, returning it to the counter instead of leaving it at the table.
“The coffee was really good. Thank you.”
Oh my god he’s the first person to return a mug what the heck how why–
“Thank you for coming. I hope you come back someday.” Zam covered for me, sensing my turmoil.”
“I will. Have a good day.”
I stared at his retreating figure.
Zam stared at me.
I stared harder at the door.
“He was, interesting.”
Zam throws up her hands. “I don’t even know why I try. Your shifts over. Go home.”
“Okay. Bye, see you tomorrow.”
I jumped from another building, climbed up yet another apartment.
“Hey, are you a new hero too?” A newbie, by the looks of it. Fresh out of the HHQ, uneducated and eyes still full of light.
They would extinguish that soon enough.
I shook my head.
He furled her brows, green ears lightly flicking, red fur around his face. “Oh. I got lost from my group. Do you know where they are?”
I saw them pass by a few moments ago.
I pointed him in the direction I saw them just before. “Hey. Wait. You can be a great hero one day, even if you're a D. You can do it. Definitely. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
The elegant badge on his left breast pocket, ‘D’ had already marked his future. It would assure his death, the pain he’ll go through. Even though they had features of a Caracal hybrid.
I remembered mine. I had burned it.
I left before he could respond.
I wouldn’t want him to make the same mistakes I had.