But she wasn't there. Not in the café she used to hide in for so long…but a very pretty and scared little girl was. She had Tara's mouth and nose and her impossibly long hair.
But those eyes on the other hand, a deep shade of green, watery and slightly red probably from all the crying she'd done. She told me her story and I made cocoa for us. From then on I was her father. I don't care what anyone else thinks, I owed this to Tara if nothing else. To make sure her baby girl was looked after and had a damn good life.
We'd barely touched back down in America when SUIPP contacted us. Specials Unit for Integrating Powered people. They told me Nia had the genetic marker to be powered, just like me. They'd known about me for years but decided to just let me be. But now that she's in my care they wanted to know if I'd be willing to do more to take care of her and make sure other powered people wouldn't be a problem for her.
They offered me a job. Six figure salary, incredible benefits for me and Nia, I just had to channel my hatred for powers and powered people and use it to hunt reagents and catalysts down. I took the job without much hesitation, especially when they offered me pills to give to Nia to suppress her powers.
15 years later, she's all grown up with a bachelor's degree in engineering and another in linguistics. She is fluent in 21 languages. She's mastered 3 forms of martial arts and I intend to start teaching her another soon. If anything happens to me there's a hefty sum of money and stash houses for her, left with instructions on how to survive in case she discovers her powers.
I pray she doesn't because I've seen what powers can really do.
But today isn't about her. It's about stopping these problems up ahead.
I bled into the darkness, slinking my way into the gym as my watch heavily vibrated against my wrist. One signal all alone. Perfect for me.
A boy? Odd choice for hair, he looked like he'd had a hard life already but physically didn't look much older than Nia if at all. He was looking at himself in the mirror, slack jawed. The shadows below the sink were out of his peripheral, good. I used them to time myself just right.
The boy reached into the medicine cabinet behind the mirror. Perfect.
I grabbed his legs and started swallowing him into my darkness. He yelled and ripped the cabinet wall off its hinges and tried to slam it down on me. It only went through the shadows and hit the floor. Can't blame the kid for trying though. I just about had him all the way sucked in when my watch pinged again. Another signal was around the corner.
"Ayo Teach, you go-SHIT!" a young man with dreads came rushing around the corner. He held a bat in his hands, he moved to swing it but the other man called out to him.
"Adrien stop! Go back. This thing could get you too." The blonde boy called out as my shadows reached his neck. I wished I was a little faster at this but it's been some time since I last hunted, my muscles need some time to stretch themselves out.
Adrien stood back, he looked angry. His eyes flashed red then blue, then back and forth between the two colors until it settled on a swirling rainbow pattern. Shit, that's never a good sign.
"Let Elias go. Now!" Adrien growled as the lights flickered above us and shook until they grew blindingly bright. If I hadn't seen and felt what happened next I never would have believed it.
I was attacked by a rainbow. An intense heavy beam of light that came out of the ceiling lights. I screamed in pain and let Elias go, slinking safely back into the shadows. What the hell was that, a rainbow laser beam?! Jesus, now I've seen everything.
Need to regroup. Come up with another game plan. The other targets are on their way and I have absolutely no intel on what their abilities are. One would be easy to grab, but six jumping me at one time? They may not be trained and I normally wouldn't run from a challenge but that boy, Adrien, his power scares me. It's a direct counter to me and that's a problem.
If I can separate him from the group…or better yet turn off the lights and his source…
Ok new plan. I found the power supply and turned off the lights, damaging it in the process to stop anyone from fixing this problem. I could hear them running around, using the flashlights on their phones to try and find each other. No, no, you kids don't get to win, not today.
I'm at my strongest in the dark, my sight works perfectly fine but the others? Not so much. Not from what I see anyway.
"Elias, you ok?" Adrien asked as Elias rose up from the ground and dusted himself off.
"I feel like I need a shower but otherwise I'm fine. What the fuck was that thing and how the hell did you do what you did?" I'd like to know that myself.
Adrien shrugged, his eyes still flashing rainbows. "I don't know but whatever I did definitely hurt it. We should find the others."
"My thoughts exactly. The powers out again but I don't think it's from that earlier thing do you?" Elias turned on his phone's flashlight and scanned the bathroom and hallway. He wouldn't find me, not unless I wanted him to. None of them would. But there's no harm in pushing them in the right direction.
"Gentlemen, it would serve you well to give yourselves up. Don't make this harder than it has to be." I made my voice eerie, echoing it off the walls around the place so they couldn't figure out my location. "Unless you want me to go after your companions that is."