Ren turned around to walk away. As Aura flew away in a streak of colour in the sky, he also saw a flash of white move across the roof. As the streak of white halted, he came face to face with Purge. The beacon of white in the middle of the roof, appearing as if from nowhere, was a strange and unnerving thing, yet he found himself slowly getting used to it. With a clearing of his throat, he walked forward to meet the figure in white.
"Again, I find myself asking…what do you want?" Ren said, slowing his steps and then halting completely. The figure in white looked directly at him from behind the mask, and Ren heard a modulated chuckle come through the speakers.
"Talk. I'm here to talk. Dusk has fallen, I'm here to tell you that you have a place in the Dawn." The crackling of the voice modulator enhanced the strangeness of the situation. "You can either follow Aura to an era of shackles and security, or you can come with me and enjoy the freedom of chaos."
"When we first met, you were going on about order, purging the criminals," Ren said with a hint of disbelief in his voice.
"No. Yes, we would bring order, happiness, freedom. Yes, we would sweep away those who prey on the weak and the free. The predator isn't always the criminal. This will be a dark road, with misery and chaos, but ultimately…even chaos is order. And sometimes, misery to some begets happiness for others," Purge said, shifting in stance and then suddenly disappearing from sight, a gust of wind blasting against Ren as the air around him rushed to fill the void left behind by the fast figure. On the spot where Purge once stood lay a key with a small printed label on it; an address.
Ren looked up to the horizon and sighed. For his entire career in costume, he had been chasing after something without knowing it. Something was moving in the background, and it felt like now everything was coming to a head. Whichever path he chose, there would be no turning back.
....
The next day he's up early, or more accurately, still up from the previous night. His thoughts continue to be plagued by a lack of information and confusion about the things he did and didn't know.
For a full day, he walks the city streets, dressed like any other normal person, and take it all in. He wander into a small park in the heart of Pacifica. Somewhere in the distance is a playground and the happy screams of children echo throughout the rest of this small green patch in the midst of the concrete cityscape. A path made of packed gravel crunches underfoot as a jogger goes by. It's a strangely serene place; a sudden departure from the extended flashback that's been going on in his head.
Next to the path, a group of elderly men are gathered, playing chess and talking about current affairs. Next to them is a radio, and somehow the men have managed to find a radio station playing the best of the 50's. In between songs, there are small snippets of historical news mixed with current affairs.
With a relaxed sigh, Ren sit down on one of the many park benches. Someone has already tagged it in several places with a large black pen, and someone else has carved the numbers 420 into the wood with a sharp instrument. Across his vision walks a hot-dog vendor pushing their metal cart, and somewhere on the opposite side of the park he can hear the jingle of an ice cream truck.
It's all so very idyllic. Then he turned his eyes to the city and see the looming Star of Pacifica just a few blocks away. A newspaper floats by, carried by a light breeze that stops just as the paper is within reach of him. He spot the headline on the cover: "California Demands Vigilante Detainment!"
Ren pick up the paper hesitantly and skim through the article. The state is lobbying for mass detainment rights on all powered vigilantes. Apparently there's already a facility open for it. It doesn't surprise him, with what the news has been telling him for the past weeks and months, and what Aura told him the previous night. It's going to get hard to conduct himself with such attention on him and his fellow vigilantes.
Yet, there's something that strikes him as odd about the article. The rhetoric used is harsh, painting even Aura as a menace and a threat that needs to be leashed. An editorial column in the same paper blames the powered individuals for pretty much everything, from the earthquake to stalling building ventures in Pacifica to the lack of FEMA money to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
"What do you think?" Ren hears a voice call from behind the newspaper he's holding. Ren lower it and see a small girl looking up at him with big emerald eyes and a smile from ear to ear. He turn the paper over and see that she's seen the headline about the detainments.
"Where's your parents?" Ren ask without even thinking.
"I asked you first," the girl huffs, tossing her cute little arms on her waist to look as puffed up and pouty as she can.
"About what?" Ren asks, looking around and trying to see if he can find any parents looking for their lost child.
"The heroes! They're great, aren't they? I think they'll save us all," she says and waves her arms around excitedly, her face pulling into a wide smile again. "But Mommy says they're just trouble and should go away. I don't think she likes them very much. I think the heroes should show Mommy that they're doing good!"
"Honey! Honey!" Ren hears a call from behind him as a middle-aged woman rushes to the scene and quickly grabs her daughter. "Hey, you stay away from my child, you freak. What do you think you're doing, luring kids around the park? I should call the police. Let's go, baby,"
Taken aback, Ren leans into the seat and tries to look as innocent as he can while the woman carts away her child. The little girl turns her head to Ren, then offers a wave as she gets dragged away. With a loud sigh, Ren leaned forward and put the newspaper down, turning his attention back to the question at hand.
Both sides want peace.
Aura wants to work within the system, cooperate with the government and make heroes into agents of justice. She wants to be held accountable and within the reach of the justice system, which in itself is a good idea.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere within the justice system and in the public will not be impartial towards any powered heroes. They'll end up pushing agendas and making him into scapegoats.
On the other hand is Purge, who seems to be conflicted in what he or she wants. For all he knows, New Dawn is still a cult that paints walls with the blood of their victims, but according to Purge, they now want freedom. They want to keep the powered individuals outside of the reach of the government, allowing all of them to make their own way in the world. In a way, perhaps that would be the easier route to affecting public opinion and gaining the support of the masses.
Neither option feels good enough. Yet Ren cannot take either side alone, or stay neutral in the affair and have both sides coming after him. The options seem clear: either he hangs up his outfit for the remainder of the chaos, or he make a choice and take a stand on one side or the other. And he have no intention of quitting just yet.
Then again, perhaps he could go one route and use that to his advantage to play both sides, or try and stay neutral in the matter altogether. It would be hard to do, perhaps even impossible, but he could try.
.....
It took him two days of following clues littered around the city to find what he was looking for. The address on the keychain led him to an old abandoned mansion in the Hollywood Hills, which in turn led him to an old warehouse in Alameda, followed by a whole series of small apartments all around the slums of Pacifica. Over time, the clues became less of a treasure hunt and more of a path—a path you had to travel, with New Dawn probably having eyes and ears everywhere along the way.
A test of some kind.
On the second day, things became more obvious. The trail led him to a closed Kezar Stadium in the middle of the night, but he didn't allow the locked gates to keep him out. He slipped in and made his way to the field.
He cross from the long entrance tunnel into the field, the grass enveloped by the darkness of night. The seats all around him appear empty, and his footsteps echo off the tunnel walls. Entering carefully, he takes a peek around and see the stadium as deserted as it should be at night. Yet something is definitely off. High above, where the announcer booth is located, a light is on and shining like a beacon.
"Hello again," Ren heard a familiar modulated voice call from behind him. He turned as fast as he could, but saw nobody there, then turned back to see a white-clad figure standing in the middle of the field.
Ren stands back by the safety of the tunnel, crossing his arms expectantly at the white figure trying to lure him out into the open. He isn't about to fall for a trick like that and refuses to play the game being presented to him. The shimmering mask keeps staring at him from mid-field, capturing his attention while waiting for something to happen. Then there's clapping. It bounces off the seats and walls of the stadium, making it impossible to locate from where he stand.
The lights of the stadium suddenly turn on all at once, signalled by the loud bang of breakers. The light bounces off Purge's white clothing in a way that blinds Ren for a moment, and he quickly bring a hand up to cover the excess bloom. In the distance, he can see a figure dropping from the stands and walking out to the field, swaying casually in her stride. From the body movement and the silhouette, Ren guess the figure to be a woman.
"Nice of you to join us, Lucid, you've been quite expedient in jumping through hoops," the clear sound of a dainty voice calls to him, confirming his suspicion. "Purge thought you would make it here tomorrow, but I insisted. It's very nice to finally meet you."
"You might have heard of me; people have come to call me Dawn. I much prefer just plain old Katie, even if it doesn't carry much mystique or weight in it. You may call me whichever," she says as she keeps walking towards Ren. Ren can see that while everyone else in the powered community seems to have gone nuts for costumes, Dawn is dressed in very ordinary clothes: jeans, a shirt for a band he haven't heard of, and a jacket with a fur-lined hood.