Dafoanairi saw Tania running up. “What’s wrong?”
she asked as she held her staff in a ready manner.
“I was in the park, and then there was someone
following me,” Tania explained.
“There is someone nearby. It could be one of those
agents,” the Enigma said.
“Agents?” Tania asked.
“Oscorp, intimidating the hero vigilantes by having
them followed,” Dafoanairi answered.
“As if people in Lawndale aren’t on edge enough!”
Tania responded. “What’s your plan?”
“We were doing our usual late-night patrolling and
rescuing,” Dafoanairi snarked. “But if you want to go home, we can take you
there.”
Tania thought for a moment. ‘It’s probably a good
idea to go home.’ But she did also enjoy the occasional night with the two
heroes as they did what they did. ‘And they seem mismatched, but they work.’
“Tania?” Dafoanairi asked.
“Not yet,” Tania said.
“We were headed to the Giant Strawberry,” the
Enigma said.
“It is a good lookout spot,” Tania said. “But on a
cloudy night like this?”
“Things can still be seen,” Dafoanairi said.
At the Strawberry, the town still seemed quiet, but
the Enigma was able to spot some agents as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop
downtown. “That’s about four or five so far,” she said after fifteen minutes.
“Four or five too many,” Dafoanairi murmured.
“It’s not like you can fight them all,” Tania said.
“A war between the heroes and Oscorp wouldn’t be
good for Lawndale,” the Enigma said. She thought about her encounter with the
agent an hour before, and the damage she did to the that house. ‘More buildings
damaged, but at least it got off a lot better than the Lawndale Center.’
“That’s an understatement,” Dafoanairi said.
“So, what will you do about it?” Tania asked.
“Not sure yet,” Dafoanairi admitted. “But we can’t
just lie low. That won’t be good for Lawndale either, and it would be like
admitting defeat.”
SpiderGirl climbed out on the roof at her usual
time to listen to Lawndale. She didn’t hear any of the agents anywhere near her
neighborhood. That at least was reassuring. The town sounded, pensive, as if it
was waiting for something. ‘For what?’ she wondered. After around fifteen
minutes, she heard sirens near the Creek, southwards of the Jefferson Bridge.
“Responsibility calls,” she said as she swung away.
In Dega Street, the Shadow was watching the area
near the Zon/Zen nightclub when she heard something nearby. She looked after
switching her mask to night vision mode and saw a figure watching her. ‘It
doesn’t look like one of the others,’ she thought. She knew it wasn’t a new
vigilante hero; something felt off.
She then took out a dry ice pellet, moved quickly
and disappeared down a fire escape to the ground.
Down on the ground she watched the person go to her
last position and look around in confusion. ‘It has to be Oscorp,’ she thought.
Nearly five minutes later, she was on top of the
Historia, looking around. ‘If Osborn is scouring the rooftops, he’s up to more
than just trying to discredit SpiderGirl through the media and shoddy
merchandise.’ She looked towards the Oscorp headquarters down the street. ‘I
know what else I’m going to do tonight.’
But she wasn’t going to do it straight away. ‘How
to catch one of them?’ she wondered.
It wasn’t long before one climbed up the side of
one of the neighboring buildings. They then just stared at each other for a
first time. ‘I doubt it would be as easy as using my grappling hook as a
zipline,’ the Shadow mused. ‘But I’ll give it a try.’ She quickly lined up the
grappling hook.
However, the figure moved as she fired it,
sprinting to the street side of the rooftop.
The Shadow quickly retracted it and dashed to
behind an HVAC vent. ‘That was impulsive!’ she thought. She took out a camera
and threw it to the side. Her HUD then showed the image. The figure had moved.
“I know you’re there!” she said.
No response.
‘Osborn probably just wants them to tail.’ But
still, she wanted to know why.
‘Undoubtedly the others may have had their own encounters.’ But that wasn’t
really helpful, as she often worked alone, and hadn’t really worked with
SpiderGirl and Ninja Talon since Groundhog Day.
After another five minutes again, she moved out to
the open and looked around again. She spotted what looked like the same figure
one two rooftops over. ‘Keeping his distance, but I can work with that,’ she
thought as she grabbed another dry ice pellet.
This time the agent didn’t see it coming. He was
enveloped by fog and then was tied by a zip line. When the fog had cleared, he
saw that the Shadow had captured him.
“Why is Osborn having the heroes followed?” she
asked.
He remained silent.
“I want to know!”
She sighed and took out a pen.
“You’re making notes?”
“Usually do art, but taking notes works.”
The agent was silent again.
But then there was pain, like he was being tased!
The Shadow didn’t want to resort to that, but she
was getting rather impatient. But it was short. ‘What would Trent say?’ she
asked herself. ‘Something the Enigma
would do!’ She didn’t want to think that it was because of her abduction by
Beck.
“I knew it! The vigilantes aren’t heroes!”
“We are heroes. At least SpiderGirl and Ninja Talon
are. The fourth and Dafoanairi, I’m not sure of.”
“I’m still not saying anything!” the agent said.
“I can infer something. That Osborn, or the
middleman, told you that the heroes aren’t what we appear to be.”
“You’re getting close.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” the Shadow said. It was
all she wanted to get for the moment. She picked up a dry ice pellet. ‘No, I
can’t leave him on the Historia’s roof!’ She thought as she looked around. She
looked at the Oscorp headquarters again. ‘There!’
It was difficult to carry the agent across the
rooftops, but it didn’t take too long and the agent was placed on the rooftop
next to a camera. She sprayed paint over it and rappelled down the side, to an
alley where she placed a graffiti tag before making herself scarce.
At the same time, the Enigma and Dafoanairi arrived
at the rear of the Ashworth’s place with Tania. They hadn’t come across any
agents on their meandering way from the Strawberry. “It may be that Oscorp is
aware that High Hills Park is a regular meeting place,” Dafoanairi said.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Tania said.
“Like, we can’t be there every night,” the Enigma
said.
Tania shrugged. “I have been going to a dojo,
learning self defense.”
“Good idea, given that you’re involved with us,”
Dafoanairi said.
“That wasn’t the only reason. My parents wanted me
to do it, given that I have been going out late at night.”
“So, they accept that you’re Wiccan?” Dafoanairi
asked.
Tania shrugged. “They don’t understand it, but they
are open minded and have tried to raise me the same.”
The Enigma thought about what Tania had said as she
and Dafoanairi left. ‘It seems Mrs. Ashworth is letting Tania follow her heart.’
As the coming dawn started to appear in the east
the Shadow returned to Casa Lane. She knew she wasn’t going to tell Trent about
the tasing.
She entered the kitchen and took off her mask and
saw that Trent was there with Jesse, brainstorming a Mystik Spiral song.
“Hey Janie, long night?” Trent asked.
“You could say that,” Jane answered.
“Something is up?” Trent asked.
“Oscorp,” she said and explained about the agent.
Trent took in what Jane had said. “We knew Oscorp
was up to something.”
“Yes, but I don’t know what it has to do with that
break in at Alchemax, nor with the fake SpiderGirl clothes,” Jane said.
“Are you sure those are from Oscorp?” Jesse asked.
“I doubt it would be something separate,” Jane
answered, although she couldn’t on finger on why.
“But it still could be,” Trent pointed out.
“I know that, but it would be difficult for me to
check,” Jane said.
“You could ask Daria,” Trent said.
“I know that, but between her existing
investigation, the Historia, school, tutoring Brittany and hanging out with
Sandi, she’s busy enough.”
“Hmmm, Isn’t Sandi helping with the investigation?”
Jesse asked.
“She is,” Jane answered with a sigh. ‘Dani must
have told him,’ she thought. “I’ll ask Daria anyway.”
“Isn’t the play on again tonight?” Jesse asked.
“It is,” Jane confirmed.
Lawndale Sun-Herald
Friday, March 9, 2001
Mysterious Figures seen on
rooftops
Norman Osborn put the paper aside. It was
inevitable that the agents would be noticed by the Lawndale public at large.
His cell phone rang. “It is early,” he said.
“The agents were taken out,”
the Chief of Security reported.
“So quickly?” Norman asked with disappointment.
“By all five.”
“It was just two yesterday evening.”
“And the Shadow vandalised an
outside wall of the headquarters,” the Chief of Security added.
“Not surprising. I’ll look at it later.”
“You don’t need to.”
“I will,” Norman said as he hung up.
Bernard then entered the room. “A masked woman
calling herself the Violet Force is here to see you, sir.”
“Of course. Bring her here.”
The Violet Force entered the office.
“Welcome, Linda,” Osborn said.
“I knew that you had figured it out,” she said.
“I think I know why you’re here.”
“You’ve gone too far.”
“And you and Sandi are going to stop me?” Osborn
said.
That brought the Violet Force up short. She hadn’t
realised that Osborn knew about Sandi. ‘I hope he doesn’t know about Daria
too!’ she thought as she raised a forcefield.
“Yes, I know that Sandi is the fourth vigilante.”
She could tell that Osborn was telling the truth,
but she wasn’t going to let that dissuade her from what she was there to do.
But first. “What about the others?”
“I still have no idea who they are.”
“But you’re trying to find out.”
“Naturally,” Osborn answered.
“I’ll make sure that won’t happen.”
“You’re going to stop the agents?”
“I don’t need to. Sandi has already stopped one,
and I heard that others have been stopped by other heroines as well,” the
Violet Force responded.
“I could expose both of you.”
“I know, but I think you won’t, because of whatever
plan you have.”
“I admit that,” Osborn responded.
“Still, I want you to stop tailing the other
heroines.”
“No. I’ll continue putting pressure on them as I
have been.”
“I’m sure you’re aware of what I did in Boston?”
the Violet Force asked.
“I am, but Oscorp isn’t the Mafia!”
“I know that, but it’s more insidious!”
Osborn just stared. “I admit there are ethical
lines I’m willing to cross, but that is more than an exaggeration.”
“It isn’t an exaggeration!”
“Are you referring to William Morris? The LDPD
haven’t been able to corroborate his story.”
“A stalemate,” the Violet Force grumbled. “But know
that I’m keeping an eye on you, along with Sandi, whoever the other four
vigilantes are, as well as others.”
