literature

Flashpoint

Deviation Actions

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Literature Text

    A metropolis the size of Gale City never slept. It just turned the street-lights on and burnt every bulb until the sun began its shift at dawn. 

    Crouched atop a building in the central business district, Masterstroke let his eyes wander along the expanse of gravel streets, traffic lights, and pedestrians that marched to the sounds of the night. On the people went, oblivious to the concrete and glass trees of the urban jungle at night. The cool breeze that reached his masked face brought him a moment of relief from his concentration. It was a slow night that had gone by without as much as a purse snatching. If things continued this way, he resolved to call it a night and go home.

“Just one last patrol. Then we’ll go home,” he said to himself.

    Unfolding his city map, he resolved to patrol the industrial park located in the East End. He kept to the roofs of the buildings as much as he was able, preferring to keep himself out of sight from the prying eyes of the street. Despite the proximity of the buildings, the traceur still needed to take his time before leaping from roof to roof. He was largely confined to his patch and did not often venture farther than the neighbourhoods that bordered Lake Michigan. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, he knew the rooftops in ways that no motorist did. More than half a year of navigating his way from the gables of the city were enough for him to compensate for his lack of transport, and he was grateful to be as far away from the Black Torrent and his associates as possible. Although he had only seen him once, Masterstroke doubted that he would take kindly to an upstart such as himself showing his face in his territory.

    Before long, he found his way to the industrial estate, a large stretch of warehouses and garages for heavy vehicles. Row by row of metallic rectangles and cubes towered over him as he slowly walked by. Something caught his eye and made him stop.

    A ray of light from a bright lamp on the side of the warehouse revealed a pair of legs that seemed to protrude from the shadow of the wall. As he looked closer he saw a security guard motionless on his back, his walkie-talkie smashed to pieces beside him. He bent on one knee to examine the unconscious figure, shaking him slightly on the shoulder. The night-watchman didn't budge, even when Masterstroke moved him to the light. A painful-looking bruise could be seen on his head. The man had been coshed by an unknown assailant.

    But why? What was he guarding?

“Come on now, I ain't got all night” a man’s voice could be heard not far from where he stood.

    He put his back to the wall and edged closer to the sound of a conversation that was taking place. Craning his neck around the corner, he glimpsed a group of four men with their backs to him. They faced a man with a raspy voice who took a drag from a cigarette dangling off the corner of his mouth.

“So boys, let’s see what we've got here,” the smoker said.

One of the four men came forth with a box in his arms. The client accepted the box from him and lifted the lid just enough for him to glance inside. The man’s satisfied sneer was unmistakeable.

“You can tell your boss that we have a deal. A whole shipment of these babies are just what we need.”

    Masterstroke could hardly believe his luck. An illicit deal taking place right there in front of him. The evidence was right there. All he needed was to subdue them and get the police to arrive on time. He pulled away from his vantage point and climbed up the metal wall of the storeroom, making his way to the roof. A landing kick would be enough to take down one, maybe two of them, he supposed. He took a breath in and a few steps back then took a running jump. As he sailed through the air, he extended his legs and caught one of the hoods in the face. The unharmed men backed up, taken by surprise as Masterstroke straightened up and turned to face them.

“A little late to be out on a school night, boys,” he smirked.

“What the hell are you standing around there for, you idiots?! Get him!” the man with the box yelled.

    Two of the dealers rushed him at once, one of them reaching his arms out to grab. Masterstroke adroitly side-stepped him and shot his arms out, trapping his opponent in a clinch. With his hands on the back of his aggressor’s head and his forearms clamped around the man’s ears, he jerked his body in several directions. The hapless assailant staggered, unable to keep his footing while keeping the other thugs at bay. He was felled by a powerful knee strike to the face, crumpling to the ground.

    His companion wasted no time charging him from the front. Masterstroke responded by seizing his extended arms and falling backwards. He dug his boot into the goon’s stomach and used the man’s momentum to project him backwards. With a scream, the man soared through the air and landed painfully a short distance away. The vigilante soon recovered his standing position.

    The last man standing was more careful, not wanting to suffer the fate of his cohorts. He balled up his fists and bobbed on the balls of his feet. His jab came quickly followed by a left hook. When both of his shot missed, he became frustrated and aimed a round kick to Masterstroke’s ribs. As he saw the kick coming, the vigilante sidestepped and wrapped his arm around the attacker’s leg. He continued to rotate in a circle and swept the man’s supporting leg from under him. As the kicker fell to the ground with a painful thud, he finished him off with an ankle lock and twisted as hard as he could. The man on the ground groaned at the pain.

“Catch this, sideshow!”

    He had just enough time to turn his head and see what the remaining goon had in his hand. A metallic cylinder sailed through the air, cracking against the floor as it landed. The flare of light caught him by surprise and turned the dark night into a pure white void. His hands shot up to his eyes and he felt himself collapse on the hard floor. Behind closed eyes, he saw crimson sparks like tiny fireworks bursting in front of his eyelids.

    He had no idea how long he had been incapacitated but when his vision cleared up, the man was gone along with the mysterious box. As far as he could tell, he was alone in the industrial estate. Cursing his bad luck, he sluggishly rose to his feet and dusted off his clothes. He squinted at his watch; it was 3:30 in the morning.

“Well…that’s it for me. So much for a successful night. I’d better head back,” he fumed.

    The ringing in his ears made it hard to concentrate and his head felt ready to burst. Every streetlamp made his eyes hurt and he had to stop several times to keep from retching. The dawn was breaking by the time he sneaked back into his apartment. The clock in his room read 4 AM and he cursed his bad luck that he would have to go to work in five hours. He pulled off his costume and kit, stashing them in their hiding place before collapsing to the bed, thankful that he had his alarm clock set in advance. Please, please, just get to sleep, Leo willed himself.

    The whine of the clock hurt his ears and he scrambled to reach the stop button. He had no idea when he had fallen asleep; it could have been an hour or two minutes. He didn't feel as dizzy as the night before and his migraine had dulled down. But the light of day still felt harsh and he struggled to see straight with his double vision as he washed his face and got dressed. He had no time to enjoy a proper breakfast but he didn't care. Thankfully, he had the presence of mind to pack a spare bagel in his satchel before going on patrol last night. With the number of late nights and skipped breakfasts he had endured, he made a habit of preparing his food in advance and keeping toiletries at his desk in case he ran late to work. He even went so far as to keep a change of clothes hidden away if the occasion ever came.  

    At the best of times, deciding what library items to keep or throw away was a nuisance. As he pored over the library’s collection development policy on his computer screen, Leo squinted to make sense of the letters and figures that were reduced to black teardrops on a white backdrop. His double vision had been replaced by haziness and his eyes felt like he had been swimming in a public pool with his eyes open. It wasn't long before the strain on his eyes made his headache return with full force.

“That’s it. I'm done. I'm going to re-shelve some books for a while,” Leo rose exasperatedly from his chair.

    The librarian made his way around the library with a wooden trolley piled with books waiting to be returned to their rightful place. The task was only slightly easier thanks to his memory of the library’s layout. But with every book he removed from the trolley, he would walk back to make sure there was no shelf-mark out of place, no book in the wrong section. Thank God for the trolley, he thought to himself. Not wanting to face another computer screen, he took his sweet time taking care of the stock that was set aside for dusting and maintenance.

    His vision took a distressing turn by lunchtime. The harder he squinted to read the menu, the harder it became to distinguish any of the choices. As he moved up in the line, his apprehension mounted. Not wanting to slow down the queue, he hastily ordered a flavourless macaroni and cheese with an unimpressive side salad before settling into a seat as far away from anyone as possible. The last thing he wanted was to draw any attention to the worrying black spot that appeared in the corner of his right eye.

    By the time he was escorting the last of the children from the library to lock up for the night, the black spot had continued to grow at an alarming rate. His headache had long dissipated into a numbness in his eyes. Now, he just wanted to get home before anything else happened. He hastened to leave as he turned off the lights in the farthest corner of the library dismayed at how the black spot had grown. As he rounded the corner of a bookshelf, he rammed into the re-shelving trolley and plummeted hard to the carpet. Winded, he saw his world slowly reduced to the shadows of a long and lonely night.

    The doors creaked loudly as Madge Sinclaire walked through the library. Quite by chance, she had been walking through the ground floor. To her surprise, the library remained unlocked over an hour past closing time. Her footsteps made an audible clicking as she fumbled for the light switch which made a resounding click.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” she called out.
    
    She walked further into the library, calling out as she did. It wasn't long before the librarian heard his name.

“Mr. Solaris?”

    Leo remained crouched and unmoving in a shadowed patch between two shelves. He bit his lower lip in worry, hoping she wouldn't notice him. As her footfalls gradually softened, he stirred slightly. If he was lucky, he could get out of the library unnoticed.

“Mr. Solaris!”

“I…uh…I…” he spluttered.

“What are you doing here at this time of night?”

“I had…I have to…I…”

    He couldn't finish his sentence. He sprang to his feet and ran as fast as he was able. His hand trailed along the rows of books, causing many of them to fall to the floor as he tried to make his escape.

“Wait! Come back!”

    Try as he might, the librarian couldn't run fast enough. The panic he felt had poisoned his limbs. He had scarcely taken more than a few steps before his legs gave way and he fell over gracelessly. He crashed to the carpet and lay still, hiding his head in the yielding fabric and ignoring the smell of rubber and shoes that clung to its fibres. The woman’s footsteps could be felt through the carpet as she walked up and knelt down to speak to him.

“Mr Solaris, what’s going on here? Why haven’t you locked up?”

“…I tried…”

“This really isn't like you and I'm not sure what to make of it,” she said confusedly, “Maybe we ought to speak to Sara if there’s anything wrong…”

“No!” his head shot up, causing Madge to flinch, “Don’t. Please don’t do that. She can’t know…I can’t tell her…”

    He covered his face in his hands, digging his fingers into his hair and rocking himself back and forth. Her confusion gradually gave way to apprehension.

“What’s gotten into you? Why won’t you tell me?” she insisted.

    A tremor ran through his body even as he tried to hold back a sob. All he could do was shake his head. Now Madge was getting worried. She decided to take a different approach to coax him into speaking.

“Leo, please talk to me. Are you hurt? Why don’t you want to see Sara?” she murmured softly, gently touching his shoulder. It was the first time she had ever called him by his first name.

“I can’t let her know...I can’t…”

    Leo removed his hands from his face and straightened up, turning his head to where he assumed Madge was. In the dimness of the room, Madge could see that the gold-amber of his eyes had been replaced by a deadened layer of white.
   
“I can’t see,” he confessed.

At long last...:faint:

Between university, my holidays, and my dissertation, my writing time and inspiration is nearly spent. But at last I can reveal the beginning of my newest :iconrelativitycomic: fan fiction.

Earlier in April, I posted a chapter/preview of a fan fiction I had been planning for a long time involving my OC Leo Solaris, alias Masterstroke in an adventure within the universe of Relativity. At last, I can reveal the first chapter of a longer work that I call "Blind Justice". Yes, the title has been done to bits but there are only so many original titles out there.

When Masterstroke loses his sight following an accident during his patrol, his civilian identity suffers the consequences. The men responsible for his injury have escaped, leaving him confused and starving for answers. 

Will he triumph, find the criminals responsible, and recover his sight? Or is he doomed to darkness for the rest of his days?

Next Chapter:


To read the entire collection:


Madge Sinclaire, Black Torrent, the Gale City Home for Children, Gale City and other characters and locations belong to :iconmirz333: and :iconravenswd:

Leon "Leo" Solaris and Masterstroke belong to :iconnightshade-keyblade:

Enjoy!
© 2014 - 2024 nightshade-keyblade
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mirz333's avatar
I'm coming on on this again. I've read the story in various pieces, but it's been disconnected, and given my life and state-of-mind, I really wasn't able to give it my full concentration. Nevertheless, I'm reading it again in a full block, and I wanted to comment again looking at it as a whole (up to this point). 

First of all, I never did comment on how much I love the opening of this. The beginning paragraph is so vivid, and a great hook. You do a great job of having Leo "ease" into his blindness; the scary sensation of having it sneak up on you, and not realizing what is going on. Having Madge come in is a great way to end it. She is rightfully concerned. 

Anyhow, again, a very strong beginning. I'll move on to the other chapters and comment there. I've just finished Chapter 5, so hopefully the rest will come tonight.

On a side note, I wanted to comment on the pieces, so others can read them. But, since I'm not on DA really, anymore, I may be slow to respond to any reply. So, don't feel compelled to comment back. <3