"You know, there is an unfortunate lack of respect in your kind. Ordinary people would think twice about putting their noses in any business guarded by armed men, but you just had to get yourself shot, didn't you? For what? Some kind of delusion of heroic grandeur?" a deep bass voice thundered. Ren opened his eyes to a burning white light filtering through a thick cloth. Shadows moved against this bright backdrop, but he couldn't see who they were. With quick tugs, he felt for the position of his body, heavy restraints clattering and holding him back at every motion. There was a strange echo in the room, as if part of the noise was muffled and reflected by a shifting pool.
"This whole incident could have been avoided. It is extremely unfortunate you chose this path. I have a simple question for you, and I expect you to answer it truthfully. Why are you here?" the same voice continued, shifting around and echoing in a way that told him that whoever this man was, he was circling him from a fair distance.
"Hmm. Nothing to say?" the voice boomed and suddenly got extremely close to Ren's ear.
"You refuse to wear the stupid costumes we see in the news, but you still guard your identity by carrying nothing in your pockets. Why? Do you think a worm like yourself, a pathetic spy, would mean anything to me? Do you think that I would go after whatever pathetic bloodline you have? Please. This isn't a comic book, nobody cares. All I need from you is answers, and I will get them, one way or another."
Ren feels a large hand take hold of his chin and grip it tightly, pressing down on the soft flesh behind his ear with the thumb. A shock of pain coursed through him and made a whimper escape his lungs.
"Why are you here? What are you after? Who blew up my facility?"
"Get your dirty hands off me." Ren says, trying to fight the pain.
"Feisty…unfortunate that defiance will get you nowhere. Tell me what you know! Where is Project Dawn?" the man shouted, his hand gripping Ren's face and his fingernails digging against Ren's skin. Ren felt spittle landing on him as he growled.
"Sir," someone interrupted from behind the large man, and Ren could hear him shift away from him. "We have incoming. Looks like Aura and her friends."
The man growled loudly and shoved Ren as he released Ren's face. Whatever he was tied to shook violently, chains rattling loudly above his head. Heavy steps led the large man away from him, and his voice echoed off the far wall as he began barking orders.
"Clear the place. Torch the control rooms and destroy the lab," he shouted. Ren could hear rushed steps as someone came over to him, but the large man's voice interrupted him. "Leave the hero here to burn."
The footsteps receded out of the room he was in. Ren heard the sound of stuff being thrown around somewhere nearby, then the clanking of metal cans, followed by the splashing of liquid. When the noises stopped, it became deathly silent. After a moment, the smell of burning reached his nose, and a while after that, he began feeling the chamber getting much warmer.
Ren could hear the creaking, crackling, and groaning of the structure and objects around him, then the sound of a large pane of glass shattering in a single boom. The blaze was getting closer. He could feel the room temperature skyrocketing. He took in deep breaths and felt the hot air clinging to his insides, causing aggravating coughs on the exhale. He heard a rattling of chains above him and took in another deep breath, but this time the sudden cool air entering his kungs resulted in an involuntary spasm. He coughed as he tried to get the spasms under control, but his body would have none of it.
The sack was pulled off his head. The fire was nowhere to be seen, and high above him was a dark sky full of stars. Ren turned his head and saw a plume of smoke rising from behind him and into the clear sky.
"You're out, don't worry," Ren heard a modulated and distorted voice behind him. Ren turned around to see a familiar white-dressed and masked person standing there, staring. Ren launched to his feet and stepped back, his lungs still forcing dirty air out in bursts of coughing.
"What do you want?" Ren said and watched as Purge took a single step towards him.
"I just saved you from becoming a pile of charcoal, so you're welcome. The big bastard who tried to torch you is Ferris Bernard, the number-one strongman for Reissman Industries and a key enforcer for Rennow's campaign to become Governor," Purge said and looked back at the bunker. Ren saw a streak of colour against the night sky, resolving into a blue-green blur; Aura. Purge glanced back at Ren and tugged nervously on the white hood covering the strange mask.
"New Dawn is rising. But first, there must be a dusk," the white-dressed rescuer stated, then vanished in a blur that ran off the side of the building.
The time of heroes, vigilantes, and freaks is over. Project Dawn has been let loose. Decisive action is called for.
Suggested course of action: Termination.
.....
Ren was still tired from the events in the bunker and the attack on the vigilante group session in the penthouse. His powers had recovered, but not to their fullest extent. In order to keep himself involved without exhausting himself all over again, he'd been doing a lot of research and looking around for signs of Project Dawn or any other major threats.
Purge saved him from the inferno of the bunker complex, then fled from the scene when Aura arrived. She didn't pay any attention to Ren, but took a close look at the facility before quickly leaving towards the city centre.
Ren hadn't heard from Nightreaver at all since he'd beckoned he back to the penthouse. It was strange. He'd shifted his foot patrols in order to take a peek at the usual type of crime Nightreaver tackled, yet he hadn't seen even the slightest hint of him.
Ren pushed back his chair and leaned forward, stretching his back and shoulders before getting up. His eyes wandered across the small room and took in his private little space—his lair, his sanctuary. It had grown to be as much a part of his vigilante career as his suit. It was just one room in his home that he'd converted and hidden away, but it felt like so much more. He looked outside at the skyline of Pacifica. It usually takes him at least forty minutes to get into the city.
The house was far, but not too far. Isolated enough to avoid too many curious eyes, but not isolated to the point of living in the wilderness. The room conversion had been a fairly quick process. He changed the old room from a traditional second bedroom into a completely new configuration, utilizing the space as best he could.
He had a workbench in the room with a mannequin next to it holding a spare outfit. A large punching bag hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room, with a narrow mirror mounted on one wall so that he might observe his form.
At another wall stood an office desk topped with a series of six screens showing various images and video feeds from Pacifica. Due to the distance and the fact that there was an internet service provider monopoly in the county, most of the screens were slightly greyed out, with a rotating circle indicating buffering issues.
He glanced into the room and took a step back, turning to see the television instead. He had it turned on to the local news by default. This time, the news was busy reporting on an armed robbery nearby. With a smirk, he walked straight into his little lair and grabbed his outfit. It was only half on by the time he'd gone out the door to rush to the scene.
Next evening....
He were sitting on top of an office building, looking down at the busy square in front of the Star of Pacifica building. The humongous screen that usually served as an ad space was now tuned to a news broadcast. Echoes from the surrounding buildings made the sound distorted and hard to understand from where he was, but he managed it.
"Due to the increased amount of destruction in Pacifica in the aftermath of these powered vigilantes arriving in our good nation, there is no other option than to enact this executive order," the voice from the television echoed with a hollow ring. The voice belonged to the President, standing defiantly behind his podium in the White House.
"These vigilantes cannot remain out there unmonitored, and they cannot be allowed to remain as a threat to public safety. Under these circumstances, this executive order will authorize the detainment of any vigilante operating in the United States, whether a citizen or not…" Ren sighed as the President continued rambling on about his executive order; a political action made under great pressure in Washington.
Ren heard a rush of air behind him and the pat of boots landing on the roof. He turned to see Aura, her cape flapping in the wind, providing a contrast to the blue-and-green colours of her outfit.
"Turn yourself in," she said, her tone of voice firm and confident.
"It hasn't even been a week since the attack on us. Why would we turn ourselves in? We know nothing about the people who attacked the penthouse," Ren said, standing firm against Aura's gaze.
"Because we don't have a choice. This is how it works, we need to follow laws if we're to uphold them. And we don't want another one of those penthouse attacks, it's unnecessary and endangers civilians," she said and kept staring at Ren. "You're not from here, show them your passport and you'll be let off easy. A plane ticket will be arranged to get you home."
"What if this is home now?" Ren asked, to seemingly deaf ears. "I won't come with you. They can't lock us away."
"I don't want you to come with me, I want you to wisen up and side with the good guys here. The government is going to crack down on our little vigilante business, and it's up to us how hard they're going to do that. It's your call; either there's blood on the streets, or we go in quietly and listen to what we're told from now on. We're an asset, but they want to make sure we don't get out of control. We don't need any more crates littering this city," Aura said, her voice rushing to get the heated words out faster the further she got into her tirade. At the end of it, she looked at Ren with fury in her eyes.
"If I don't hear that you've turned yourself in by tomorrow night, I'll be coming to drag you in personally."
With a loud flutter of her cape, Aura rose to the skies and darted off, flying past the Star of Pacifica and heading off to whatever waited for her behind it. Ren sighed as he watched her go, his eyes falling back down to the busy square below and the flat screen now showing an interview with someone claiming to be an expert, probably concerning the plans the government would be putting into place for the 'vigilantes' out there.
"This is why I work solo..."