The Way Forward (w/ LouieLouieLouie)

[CanaryCry]

Name: Evelyn
Age: 26
Superpowers: Evelyn has what is referred to in her universe as Sight with a capital S (known as elemental scrying by the superpowers wiki). If she is touching water, she can then see into areas she isn't physically present in through any other source of still water. This creates a very small, faint glow of blue light in whatever source of water she is looking through, and a more pronounced blue glow in her own eyes.
On top of this, she also has what she refers to as Insight (also known as claircognizance), wherein she gains knowledge of facts she's never learned on her own, most often without her consent or control (i.e. when she first meets a person she can get no insight whatsoever, or she can tell that they're about to get divorced, or thinking of starting a new job, or other such things). Touching an object someone else has touched can give her glimpses into what happened around it.
In some iterations, she also has a weak technopathy, enough to send untraceable messages or work simple electronics. In others, she simply has a friend/contact much stronger in ability that helps her out.
History/Storyline: Evelyn grew up simply, in a family neither rich nor poor. After being used by supposed friends and boyfriends as a party trick and, in black corners of her life, a tool, she moved far away from home to start a new life. In this new city, she used the combination of her abilities to become known simply as The Informant. If someone wanted information on their enemies, business partners or opponents, and knew the right people to get in touch with, they would contact her. As her messages can't be traced, no one knew her identity.
One day, she noticed someone using Sight just like hers to look at her in her home, and out of curiosity she decided to communicate with them. When she was finally able to follow the source with her own Sight, she found an exhausted looking young man in a dark, somewhat bare room, and after days of communicating in writing and simple yes or no questions, discovered he was being kept against his will and had been for a long time. Her Insight eventually told her how many people he had killed, but she knew something was wrong and set about finding someone to free him. She revealed her identity to this person and part of the organization they worked for, and was able to reveal the fact that the killer (Luca) was under the mental control of the man keeping him and not truly responsible for all the deaths in time to have the right person taken down. Since then, she's spent a great deal of her time trying to take care of Luca and help him re-enter the world.
Personality: Calm. Evelyn generally seems rather content and under control. With strangers she is rather stiff and resistant, but for known entities she will relax. Friends are treated softly, but having been taken advantage of before she treads lightly around anyone that asks too many favors.
Other: As a defining visual trait, Evelyn always walks with an umbrella or parasol. Rain makes her Sight difficult and temperamental, and on sunny days she burns easily.






Name: Luca
Age: 21
Superpowers: Luca has the same Sight as Evelyn (Elemental scrying via water), as well as the ability to form energy constructs which he refers to as The Shadow. The Shadow will sometimes act on its own should he come under attack and not react in time. He forms black energy into walls, ropes, or sharp tendrils that can crush most wood and stone, but cant cut straight through metal - bash and dent it, yes, but not cut through. This energy has mainly been developed for brute force, slamming or slicing through human opponents, and not for anything that requires more care or precision. Luca has learned to be a battering ram, and is still working on more gentle ways to use to his strength.
History/Storyline: Since he was a small child, around 10, Luca has been kept by a man who kept him compliant through mind control, sedation, and psychological manipulation. His parents were first, to make sure no one was looking for him, and after the few years it took to make Luca give up and stop fighting the man used his power to slaughter countless people. As Luca was always dressed in a full face motorcycle helmet and leather jacket - both to hide his identity and mask his young age before he grew up - and his powers left no evidence behind, authorities had been scrambling to find him before Evelyn did. Trapped as he was, he often used his Sight to take random glimpses of the outside world, and she was the first not to panic at his Sight's presence, to calmly invite him to stay instead. When she eventually found him and got someone to save him from the man that controlled him, he refused to speak to anyone until he could see her again, and trusts no one more than her, and the person that physically freed him.
Personality: Quiet. With very little experience with people Luca is confused by most social interaction and highly naive. He'll go along with most anything without questioning whether it's normal or not, and doesn't appear to care what's happening to or around him as long as he isn't being attacked or otherwise hurt. After so long living in captivity like he did, Luca is a confusing mix of touch-starved and uncomfortable with people. He will let people he trusts do just about anything as long as they'll be in physical contact with him somehow.
Other: Afraid of sleeping alone in the dark

 

[CanaryCry]

For weeks after initial contact, Evelyn had been leaving a bowl of water on the ottoman in her living room, waiting for the moments Luca was alone long enough to visit her. She had taken to keeping a large notebook and marker nearby to ask yes or no questions, or to tell him something she thought might cheer him up. He was always so tired, always so distant, and only a handful of times had he tried to mime anything at her to ask anything back. After a while, he had taken to drawing hesitant letters in the air, and she did her best to decipher them and answer. In the end, she had all the information she needed: Luca was being kept. Trapped. Used. She had to help him.

Despite a long streak of stubborn independence, she knew she was in over her head. Not only were her physical fighting skills sorely lacking, she didn't know what kind of gift could possibly keep someone as strong as Luca so thoroughly contained. Surely if it held him, it would have no trouble with her. Out of necessity, she spent another painfully long week gathering as much information as she could on prospective candidates, finding someone she was relatively certain was the perfect man for the job - strong, experienced, as virtuous as one could perceivably be while also tending to act as a lone wolf, and with a gift that would completely nullify the threat of both Luca and the man holding him. It was an added bonus that he had been fighting to dismantle the Lombardi family for longer than most had managed without being bought off or killed. He would jump at the prospect of taking away their biggest gun.

As one would expect from any private detective who actually wanted clients, the man's office was easy enough to find. All she had to do was walk past the front doors while he was inside, a casual stroll but with a short enough distance between them for her technopathy to make contact with his cell phone. Later on, in the middle of an otherwise average morning, she sent the detective a message with no source, a known trademark amongst any locals that had ever used her services, or any who heard from those who had.

I have information for you about your Ghost. It read. I'd like to meet in person. Come alone to Grand Bell Park, 12:30, and have a seat. I'll find you.

If mention of the Ghost Killer wasn't enough, she was sure the added lure of being the only one to meet the mysterious Informant in person would draw him in, and as long as he was alone she would let him. For a camouflage, of sorts, she dressed in business attire, a brown plaid skirt, a black blouse, a deep purple sweater, black tights and small heels. Disarmingly similar to the number of office workers who often took walks through the park for their lunch, if not for the black and purple parasol perched above her head. Still, "Umbrella Girl" was a somewhat known figure to some of the more observant, long-time locals, and seen as harmlessly eclectic, largely ignored. Like a magician's misdirecting hands, the moniker drew attention to all the wrong places.

The detective was sitting on a bench, as instructed, and she walked down the paved path in his direction with eyes that wandered, looking up into the trees as she went, as if she hadn't noticed him at all. They drifted to a mother and child sitting on a blanket in the grass as she took a seat on the opposite end of his bench, settled in with crossed legs and began casually scrolling through art on her phone to pass the time. She let him stew in annoyance at her presence a little while, surely thinking she would scare off The Informant and ruin his meeting. Finally, before he could choose another bench, and without so much as touching her screen, she sent him another message.

On your left.

"Hello, detective." She said aloud once he'd had time to read it, and when he turned to see her more clearly she gave him a small smile, not quite mocking enough to be called a smirk. "I know. Not quite what you expected. Everyone seems to think I'll be a man, and much older. They would sooner guess you, rather than me."

Truly, she was sure this older, tougher man was what all of her clients pictured when dealing with her. She was taking a risk by letting even this one learn her face, but it couldn't matter enough to stop her, not when Luca was still suffering.

"I'll get right to business. You've been chasing the Ghost for a long time." She didn't make it a question. It was her reputation and her business to know things, not guess them. "I can give him to you. But only if you're willing to accept my words as truth, above all else. Do you think you can do that, Detective?"

If she was going to keep Luca safe, this man was going to have to believe her when she said that all the death and destruction wasn't his fault, and that he deserved to be freed rather than imprisoned. If he wouldn't believe her reputation for complete and total accuracy, it wasn't going to work, and she was going to have to find out how to walk away after telling him she had the information he wanted most.

 

[LouieLouieLouie]

[Best image of what I picture Ben's appearance to be that I could find. Take off the armor and slap him in a trenchcoat and you've got him. TBH, I mainly just pictured Detective Gumshoe from Ace Attorney but older and scruffier.)

Name: Benjamin Shriver
Age: 44
Profession: Private detective
Ability: Power negation. Abilities of other gifted people have no effect on him. Any form of energy manipulation shifts past him. He cannot be psychically read, controlled, located, or spoken to. This also means that healing abilities do not work on him. If he is able to make skin-to-skin contact with another person, he can stop their ability from working for the extent of time that he remains in contact with them.
Bio: Ben grew up as a relatively normal kid in the city, although he was something of an outcast from the kids with abilities, as their powers had no effect on him and he could stop them with a touch. He made do with the lot he was given, and after graduating high school, he joined the local police force. He spent a decade as one of their best men, but it also clued him into the world of corruption lying just beneath the city's political facade. The Lombardi family was a wealthy and amoral power that used their influence to come out on top in every possible circumstance, and they had half of the justice system on their payroll to avoid anything more than a legal slap on the wrist for their crimes. Eventually, Shriver left the police force and started a business as a private eye specializing in ability-related persons. Due to a typo of his last name in the newspaper in a blurb about one of his solved missing persons cases, he is sometimes referred to as "Detective Shiver," which he finds silly but endearing.

 

[LouieLouieLouie]

Ben sat back in his chair with his feet up on his desk and stared blankly at the text that had popped up on his phone. It promised information, and he liked information. He was in the business of it.

And it wasn't just a semi-helpful tidbit someone's neighbor overheard while clipping the hedges. No, this was about the Lombardis, and more specifically about the Ghost Killer. It was a dumb nickname. The media loved to sensationalize death, and the brutal murders performed by the man in the motorcycle helmet were perfect fodder for the networks. He had to admit, though, that it seemed pretty accurate. The man rarely appeared on camera, only doing so when a home security system recorded him stalking through the hallway on his way to his victim's bedroom or an unlucky tourist managed to get a snapshot while running for their life. He seemed to appear out of nowhere, destroy his target, and disappear without leaving a trace.

Ben was sure he was working for the Lombardis. All of his victims were people who, one way or another, were in the family's way, be they honest politicians or nosy journalists. That was one reason he hadn't gone to the press with most of his evidence against him. He knew from his days as a policeman that the family could worm their way out of the biggest charges and would deliver swift and bloody vengeance to the whistleblower, so until he had enough to take the family down in one fell swoop, he would have to stay quiet or have the Ghost sent after him.

The killer was a mystery, though. Ben had researched the family and their connections, down to the caterers at their phony charity events, and he couldn't find anyone who matched the physical description, logistics, and ability of the Ghost. The man in the helmet was either someone very, very good at forging an alibi or someone they had without an outside identity, who lived only inside the family's compounds and left only to do their dirty work. Whoever he was, Ben had been trying to track him for years and coming up empty-handed.

So, of course, he had to go see the Informant, as that's who presumably sent the message with no source, unless there was anyone else in the city with the same calling card. He arrived at Grand Bell Park fifteen minutes early and positioned himself on one of the benches that ran along its pathways. He kept a careful eye on the people strolling about, wondering which one of them could have the tip he needed to break the case.

Eventually, a young woman with cropped blue-white hair and holding a parasol seated herself next to him. Could be the Informant, but it was equally as likely that she was one of the many women who walked the park at lunch hour. She pulled out her phone and seemed to be looking at an art-based social media feed. He kept watching her out of the corner of his eye until enough time had passed that he figured that if she was the Informant, she would have said something by now. Annoyance sparked in him, and he wondered if he should move to a different bench so that he could speak with his contact by themselves.

That, of course, was when the text appeared on his phone, again with no source. On your left. He wanted to roll his eyes. People with powers were always so dramatic.

She mentioned that she didn't look the part of the Informant, and Ben shrugged. "I did think you'd be older, to be able to get access to the information you have. But innocence is a good disguise." He might look more like someone who traded in secrets, but that was the sort of job you wouldn't want people picking you out for.

At her insistence upon his trust in her, he crossed his arms. He had gotten dirt from multiple people in the past who had been absolutely sure about the truth of their information and turned out to be wrong. "I trust that what you'll give me is what you believe to be the truth. Perception tends to color the world in different ways. But I'll listen, and use what you have to say to put the truth together." He shrugged nonchalantly. "That's what I get paid for."

 

[CanaryCry]

"So untrusting." Evelyn murmured, something almost like amusement in her voice as she waited for a couple of joggers to pass them by and leave their little corner of park empty once more. It wasn't as if she could have expected anything different. The detective was an experienced, deliberately careful man; she didnt need her Insight to tell her that, though the fact that she wasn't getting anything at all from him was both frustrating and reassuring. Careful, experienced, and immune to other's gifts were what made the man perfect for the job.

"if I had a reputation for giving false information," she said finally once there were no longer passersby within earshot, looking straight ahead as if not speaking to him at all, "I would be out of a job." Her Insight had never been wrong. Uncertain or unhelpful, yes, but never wrong.

"I hope, at least, that you will listen with an open mind." With a little shrug and a careful breathe, she dove right in. "The Ghost is being hunted as a killer, as a monster, but I've learned otherwise. The helmeted figure you know from blurry snapshots and bad security cameras is only a puppet, with the real killer pulling his strings. I haven't found out yet just what kind of puppet master he is, but he must be very strong, to keep the Ghost's strength under control." She hoped, at least, to gain a bit of trust by admitting what she didn't know, rather than insisting on knowing everything.

"What I want from you is simple." She continued, fingers curled tight around the handle of her parasol, doing her best to remain calm and breathe steadily, speak slowly, as this was the most important part and she knew there was a chance the man would say no and she would have to leave and start all over again with someone less qualified. "When you have taken the real killer away and left the family without its strongest weapon, I want you to leave the stringless puppet with me."

She paused then, let the idea sink in for a second or two, then turned her head to look at him fully. "You know as well as I that I deal in information, not violence. He'll be safe with me. An unloaded weapon, with no more targets. . . He -" There was a pause there, a catch of emotion in her voice that she hated instantly and stomped down on as best she could, turning her eyes down to her lap where her fingers were curled white-knuckled around her phone. "He is a friend of mine. I'll take care of him."

The word 'friend' was a desperate bid for sympathy that she hoped would lend her words sincerity, one she had planned to use simply because it was true, but the emotion it brought was no less difficult for her. Luca was her friend, she thought, and she would never use him like he was being used now. She would take good care of him. If the Detective said no to letting Luca be in her care, she would at least have to bargain for the right to visit him, and ensure he went somewhere safe.

 

[LouieLouieLouie]

Ben nodded slowly as the Informant explained what she knew of the Ghost's situation. It did seem to be a valid theory. That would explain why he had no outside identity. The Ghost's kills also tended to be straightforward and efficient. He had assumed the assassin was well-trained, able to separate his emotions and personal opinions from his job, but if he was being controlled, whether by blackmail, hostages, or an actual mind-control ability, simply severing that connection may cost the Lombardi family one of their most powerful players. Best case scenario, it could make them have to fill an opening and cover their tracks, which could leave a paper trail right to the top.

He had to raise an eyebrow at the suggestion. This was a trained killer they were talking about. The man would have to go through extensive interrogation to find out whether he had actually been held against his will, or if he had been an accomplice using the family's control over him as an excuse. And that was excluding the interrogation Ben himself was planning on doing to find out what he knew about the family's inner workings. Assets often have handlers, and even just a first or last name or description could set the detective on the right path to their identity. So even considering that the Ghost could simply be released into a civilian's custody, one so young no less, was ridiculous.

"Listen, ma'am," he started, wary of the emotion in her voice. She could actually be concerned about this man, or she could be an excellent actress. "Even if this is some innocent guy, there's no way you could take him yourself. He'd have some pretty insane trauma, which I doubt even someone as intelligent as you could deal with yourself. And that's assuming I trust you, a woman I've never met with an identity and intentions no one seems to know, with someone capable of mass murder who may or may not be psychologically screwed."

Then there was the matter of her claiming to know the man already. "How do you know the Ghost, anyway?" he asked. Her history with him could provide vital clues to where he came from and how he was taken. Or recruited.

 

[CanaryCry]

"And who else would take him?"

The bite in her tone was immediate, caustic, and completely unintentional. It had been a long time since she'd let herself feel anything like genuine attachment, and she supposed her sympathy was getting the best of her as well. Luca was young, he always looked like he was hurt or exhausted, and he so very clearly was being kept that she couldn't help it. Even without her Insight, she knew that he wasn't there because he wanted to be, wasn't hurting people because he wanted to. She'd been a puppet once, though she'd only fallen prey to social pressure and no one but her had been truly hurt by it. It was difficult, thinking about him being used so.

Carefully, she took a breath and relaxed her muscles by groups as she let it out, gave her head a little shake and mustered the will to look at the Detective again with regained calm. "I know he'll have to be interrogated and analyzed and put through the legal paces before he'll be able to be released. I know not everyone will believe me. And I know how hard it will be for him. I am prepared to provide my address, my contact information - weekly, daily, or hourly check-ins for the rest of time, if I must. If nothing else, I just want to be allowed to see him, somehow, so he knows he's not alone anymore." She would surrender her anonymity for him, if it meant she was able to help him.

"I know it wouldn't be easy," she continued after another steadying breath, "and I would have to find him help for what I can't provide, but if he were to be proven innocent, Detective, where would he end up? He's too old for an orphanage. Would you have him put in a psych ward, for the rest of his life? Caged again? If he still has family looking for him somewhere, would they still want him?" They were logical arguments, delivered calmly, but these questions had been burning in her mind for weeks. She didn't want to see him freed just to be locked up again.

". . . He found me." She answered after a pause, expression a bit softer, and activated her Sight though there was nothing to use it on just so Ben could briefly see the blue glow of her eyes, dim as it was in the daylight. "He found me with his Sight, and I followed him with mine. I saw him." She let the glow die as she turned to her phone, turned it on without touching the screen, and sent him two pictures. "Now you can see him too."

They were only sketches, but it would have to do. It wasn't as if she could use a camera through her Sight, and for exactly that reason she had been learning to draw portraits for most of her life. They were life-like enough, one simply an image of Luca from the shoulders up, facing forward for identification purposes, the other a more candid depiction of him lying curled up on his side in bed, an arm dangling to the ground to touch a glass of water. He looked tired, but that was how she always saw him. More importantly, he looked very young. When his first kills were recorded, he couldn't have been older than 15 or 16.

"I know where he is." She said once she'd given Ben a moment to look, turning enough to drop her phone into her purse. "I haven't dared to see it in person, but when it rained I followed the trail with my Sight and later found it on a map. We can deliberate as long as you'd like, but how long do you think they'll wait before they use him again?"

 

[LouieLouieLouie]

It was strange, seeing the Informant holding back emotion as she vouched for the assassin's wellbeing. For one, it was an assassin she was defending, but more than that, it was obvious she wasn't used to the feeling. Even though he'd only known her face for a few minutes, Ben had known about her shadowy role in local investigations for a while now, and something about the position made her seem like a distant, unknowable creature. Maybe she wasn't, and she had friends and family that had nothing to do with her secretive job. But the way her face pinched as she struggled to keep her mask of indifference made him think otherwise.

It was nice, though. He always got a bloom of warmth in his chest when a client described someone important to them, be they missing or acting strangely or in some other position requiring a detective. You had the occasional client who just needed answers and didn't much care if the subject was all right, but most of them had a softness to their voice, a distant look in their eye, a smile as they saw them in their heads. When you work in a world where pain and misery run rampant, it was always a good moment to see the way people valued each other.

When she sent him the pictures, his heart broke, just a little. It was a kid. He'd always imagined a middle-aged man under that helmet, small and lithe but toughened by experience. The boy in the sketches couldn't be older than his early twenties, and with how long he'd been known to the media, he would've been a teenager at most when he started. The Informant already looked younger than he'd thought, and the face in front of him was even more so. The images definitely pointed toward the mind-control theory, since a kid as young as this one probably wouldn't have exactly applied for the job he had. And Ben knew that he was only seeing him through the eyes of the woman, but he seemed so small and tired. So broken.

"It's hard to say," he answered after she asked him about the next possible hit. "The Lombardis have enemies everywhere, but they're usually not dangerous enough to warrant an assassination." He thought for a moment. "I do remember someone telling me recently about a reporter they knew who had a scoop on the family. Pretty big one, apparently. I don't know what dirt they have, but it might be enough to pull out the Ghost for."

He looked around, a cautious scan that no one was within listening distance. "I'd usually suggest we go to the police, but with the Lombardis at the center, I wouldn't trust most of that department with it. Half of them are on their payroll, and goodness knows how many they've gotten since then." It sucked to see an institution that was supposed to stand for goodness and justice be corrupted by greed and deceit. "But I got a couple buds I keep in touch with, and I'd vouch for their honor. They'll help out if I ask.

"What do you know about the location?" he asked. Is this the kind of thing we can do quick recon, be in and out without a firefight? Or is this gonna need a bigger team?" He knew a few people with abilities that could make storming a compound easier, but that would probably mean casualties, and those were to be avoided. Plus, he figured no one but himself would survive the Ghost's powers, so keeping civilians out of the kid's path was vital.

 

[CanaryCry]

Though she was used to relying on her Insight, Evelyn knew enough to tell that Ben's voice had changed, if only a little. She had thought letting the man see Luca how she saw him might help sway him to her conclusions, and she had a feeling she was right. She knew more than just his appearance, of course, but it couldn't hurt. As desperate as her search for help was, she was not above preying on people's sympathy.

"It's just a house," she answered with a small shrug, doing her best to be professional and think back on any detail she'd seen. Shifting puddles were not always the most reliable of sources, but she'd spent as long as she dared looking around without getting caught. "One story, maybe 3,000 square feet, in a the rural areas outside of town so it's well away from the main road. There's a basement, but I've never seen inside. He's above ground, no bars on the windows, but there are security cameras at the front and back door, and on the corners of the house. If you have no one that can take them out, I can do that much in a pinch."

She had doubt that he would let her get involved in the actual rescue, given her status as a civilian and a relatively small, defenseless one at that, but she had to say it. If he needed someone to turn off cameras, she could do so from a decent distance, and stay well away from the actual building. As dangerous as it could be, part of her wished he would need her, if only so she could see Luca before they took him away. It didn't help her fear of losing him to the system afterwards that Ben also didn't trust the entirety of the police force.

"When they ask how you know what you know, tell them the truth." She said after a pause, switching gears to make it clear to him that she would not give him the exact location of the house until she was ready, until she had gotten Luca prepared. "A young lady named Evelyn Kohl approached you for help, because the Ghost found her with his Sight and she communicated with him for months, found out he was being used. Sending you a message as the Informant was just to be sure I could get your attention. No one else needs to know what I do for a living." As much as she was prepared to do everything she could to help Luca, she hoped, at least, that Ben was virtuous enough not to go spreading her identity around where it wasn't necessary.

"I'll make you a deal, to our mutual benefit. You do your best to advocate for my seeing him, and I'll tell him to only talk to you." She looked at him sidelong, waiting for the idea to sink in that with that resistance he wouldn't be able to be cut from the investigation. After that pause, she finally got to her feet and made a show of straightening out her clothes, resituating her purse on her shoulder. For now, this discussion had come to a close. "I'll give you some time to think it all over. If you think you can agree to that, I'll tell you everything I know. . . Have a good day, Detective."

In truth, she was going to tell Luca only to talk to him no matter what happened. The Lombardi's had a lot of people on their payroll, and with the newly confirmed knowledge that it extended into the police force she knew she neeeded to be sure Ben was involved at all times. As far as she could tell, he was clean of outer influence, so she was going to have to entrust Luca's safety to him and anyone he deemed trustworthy. Now, she just had to go home and wait for Luca to reach out to her again so she could fill him in on the plan.

 

[LouieLouieLouie]

As the Informant explained the situation, Ben felt a twinge of dread. It sounded so easy. A single building, so simply guarded, with the Ghost--no, he reminded himself, Luca--in such an easily breached position? Maybe the Lombardis were relying on the secrecy of the building. After all, Ben had tracked many of their major purchases and properties, and he'd never seen anything about it. But a feeling in his gut told him it wouldn't be as simple as it seemed.

"Evelyn," he mused when she told him her plan for the police. "It really must be important for the mysterious Informant to reveal her real name." Not that he'd tell anyone her identity, but it felt weird to have a stranger entrust him with such a secret. And such a young woman, too. She could only be a handful of years older than the kid in the sketches, and he wasn't sure if she'd be able to defend herself physically if someone came after her. Perhaps she had a tertiary ability that would help, but those were pretty rare.

She stood to leave, and Ben remained on the bench, still absorbing and fitting together all of the information she'd just given him. She stalked away, and it took him a few seconds to realize he didn't have a way to contact her. Just as he was about to call her back, though, his phone buzzed and a text popped up from an unknown number. For when you're ready, it said. He looked back to see that Evelyn hadn't even taken out her own phone and was still walking down the path as if nothing had happened.

Ben shook his head. So dramatic, he thought, but he saved the number anyway.

Later, at his apartment above his office, Ben stared at the glow from his phone as he lay in bed. There were a lot of risks here. If anything went wrong, he could become a personal enemy of the Lombardi family, and that was if he managed to get out of the rescue alive. The assassin could be lying. The assassin could see him as a threat and chuck a wall at him. The assassin could, you know, assassinate him.

But the more he considered Evelyn's pleas, the more he sympathized with them. He'd never been good with kids, but it still hurt to see them suffer. And two of them were suffering in front of his eyes, asking him right now for help.

This is a bad idea, the logical part of him said. But he just typed in a response, short and to-the-point.

I'm in.

 

[CanaryCry]

As cool as she had made herself play the part, it was difficult for Evelyn to simply walk away. Giving the detective time to think, while knowing he had information now that could ruin her, had been an extremely tough decision, but one she had concluded was necessary. She couldn't give him all of the information at once, had to be sure he was still the right man for the job and wouldn't rush too quickly to any decisions. The time it took him to finally agree was agonizing and reassuring all at once, and for the time being all she responded with was I'll tell him.

In the next couple of days, Evelyn spent every second that Luca could reach out to her preparing him, trying to reassure him that someone would come for him. She didnt know what would happen after that for sure, and she told him as much, but at the very least he would be out of that place, and she would be doing her very best to get to him. She showed him pictures of Ben's face to memorize, told him that this was the man who would free him, that once Luca was out he should only answer questions that came from that man. It was difficult, working with very little response back, but she had to believe he was taking it all in and would be ready.

Three days after her meeting with Ben, Luca proved it to her. The little light that signaled his presence bobbed eagerly up and down atop the bowl of water sitting on her coffee table, and when she rushed to follow it he had risked having a notebook of his own, finally, the door to his bedroom closed. He had a message written out for her to read that struck her with hope and panic all at once.

Even while she waited for Luca to write more, she was sending the exact location of the house to Ben's phone, and when she'd given him a pause to see it she called him.

"It has to be today." She said the second she heard his voice, doing her best to stay calm even as she rushed through words without giving him a chance to respond. "He's going to be alone with only one man soon, the one who controls him. They make him sleep, and lock him up, but now is our best chance, and it won't come again for who knows how long."

She hated the thought of rushing, was the type to prefer to plan her moves three steps ahead before doing anything, but what choice did they have? There would likely never be another opportunity like this one. She was trying to brace herself for Ben to say no, that it wasn't enough time, and it made dread curl tight around the back of her neck. Luca's last note said only one thing.

What do I do?

"Can you be ready?" She asked, and if the nerves made her voice shake she would likely deny it. "I'm with him now. What should I tell him? If you need me to disable the cameras, only tell me where to meet you." She was trying her best not to sound desperate or panicked but it was difficult with Luca there, waiting, glancing towards his door every once in a while as if worried someone would come in. "They'll make him sleep soon. If you want me to tell him something it has to be now."

 

[LouieLouieLouie]

For the next few days, Ben found it difficult to focus on the other cases he was working. Looking into the truth of a rumor or investigating an affair seemed so mundane all of a sudden. He had officially agreed to break into one of the Lombardis' buildings and rescue and/or kidnap one of the most dangerous assassins in the world, even if he did turn out to be a killer against his will. This was probably the most ill-advised thing he had ever done, and he had done some very ill-advised things in his twenties.

There was no way he was going in alone. He didn't really count Evelyn; as intelligent and capable as she clearly was, it didn't seem like she would be much help in the event of a shootout. Even if she was, he didn't like the thought of this young woman throwing herself into harm's way. The Lombardi family had already taken too many innocents in their lust for power.

So Ben did the only logical thing to do: he called in for backup. Danny and Teresa were buddies back from his days on the force. Although they were still cops, he trusted them with his life. They'd made a pretty great trio back in the day. Teresa had the ability to move superhumanly fast for short bursts, and while Danny had no powers, he was still one heck of a good shot and a decent cook to boot. They agreed to help check out the building they would "stumble upon" during a "routine patrol." They'd make any necessary arrests and provide extra firepower if needed.

Then the call came. "It has to be now." Although it made his heart race, he was as ready as he was going to get, and he knew from experience that getting worked up only served as a distraction from the matter at hand.

"Tell him to sit tight, keep out of sight of anyone else in the building. If he can, he needs to take out the guy holding him, but above everything else, he needs to act normal. If anyone gets suspicious we're all dead.

"Taking out the cameras would be great. But not all at once. Just enough to make them think something's wrong with the system and not that there's someone going after it. Put the ones on the way to where Luca's being held on the fritz, plus a few random ones to lessen suspicion on that part of the building."

Ben was slipping on his bulletproof vest under his coat as he grabbed his keys, going over everything in his head. "Oh, and tell him I've got a couple friends coming. Man and a woman, both police officers. Man has dark hair and skin, woman has red hair and medium skin. Those two specifically are on our side. He doesn't have to talk to them but make sure he knows they're on our side so he doesn't lash out at them."

He took a deep breath as he locked his apartment and jogged to his car. "And tell him he's gonna be fine. I'm not gonna let anything hurt him. Just keep breathing, and we'll be there soon." One way or another, it would all be over soon. It was now or never.

 

[CanaryCry]

Ben didn't understand - Luca wasn't dangerous when left of his own devices, and if he were in attack mode it wasn't going to be with any sense of control. He couldn't stay out of sight or watch out for them, as he was about to be drugged so he would sleep and cause no trouble. And if she was going to turn the cameras off, she was going to have to be closer to the house than either of them wanted her to be. It was too much to tell him in the short time they had.

"I'll try to tell him," she said after a steadying breath, writing as quickly as she could on the notebook and trying to cram as much information for Luca as she could into as few words as possible, "but he isn't in control. When it comes to the man with him, you're on your own. Be careful. I'll meet you there."

She hung up and tossed the phone aside before he could protest, focusing on getting as much through to Luca as she could. A short description of allies, assurance that Ben was coming to help him, not hurt him, and as much instruction as she thought could get through to him. They were out of time.

The moment Luca put his notebook away and stopped looking for her, she was on her feet and rushing to prepare. She dressed in dark jeans, a black jacket, a plain t-shirt, and a pair of boots to make it look as if she were simply taking a short hike near her true destination, and for once left her umbrella at home. When she got near to the house Luca was kept in, she parked at a turnout in the road and walked the rest of the way to disguise her approach.

This was it, she thought as she watched Ben's car approach from further down the road, and fought a tremor in her hands. The second he and his allies were ready, she would start knocking out cameras.

"I'll stay off the property," she promised when he reached her finally, forestalling any arguments before he could tell her she shouldn't be there, "but this is as far as my range goes. I'll be out of the way, and out of the line of fire. Please. Just go."

Luca was waiting for him. He mattered more than she did.

**************************************

GET UP. TARGET HERE.

Instructions came to Luca like a sledgehammer against his brain, jarring him from sleep and driving him to his feet before he knew what was going on. Through the fog, he listened to gunshots, the sound strangely clear without his helmet, and strained to get away from the bed. There was a target, and the Shadow was ready to obey. It slammed down and, with the sound of rending metal, collapsed the corner of the bed when trying to pull away had caused him pain. All that mattered was getting free, and following orders.

In the middle of fleeing, the singular man inside the house banged a hand repeatedly against a bedroom door, shouting for someone to wake up even as he unlocked it - then suddenly made a desperate dive further down the hall. Almost before his body was out of the way a black wall burst through with the sound of splintering wood, slamming the door into and through drywall on the opposite side of the hallway.

Luca stepped through the opening at a slow, wobbling pace, black energy writhing around his arms and chest like a rabid animal just waiting to be released, and turned to face the man his handler had labeled a target. As recently as he had been sedated, It had taken too long for the mental direction to get him up and moving, thus the puppet master's desperate dash down the hall to wake him. He was upright and moving, advancing toward Ben, but his expression was blank and his eyes far away. There was blood visibly dripping down his hand from beneath what was clearly a handcuff, pulled on desperately in order to follow orders before being broken by his gift when the directions became clearer, the mental control more persistent.

Despite presenting a less intimidating figure in sleep pants and a tshirt than he did in leather jacket and opaque helmet, Luca was no less destructive. When he swept a hand across the space in front of him, a long tendril of black energy slammed sideways through the building, destroying a chunk of wall as it left the hallway, and promptly broke in half as it reached the man he'd been aiming for. The wall behind Ben still broke and bent outwards in places with the force, but the middle portion that touched him had simply disappeared. There was no pause for confusion, only another attack which broke into pieces and faded away just like the first, harmless the moment it came into contact with him.

Luca was just beginning to problem-solve through the fog as Ben got closer, raising his hands up into the air to make a ring of large spikes, intent on driving them into the floor beneath the man's feet and dropping him into the basement - but when Ben's hand closed around his wrist, everything went quiet. The black miasma around his body faded instantly away, as well as the jagged spikes hanging in the air, and Luca blinked slowly once. Twice. Wobbled as he regained fuzzy consciousness and realized there was someone staring him in the face from inches away.

"You came. . ." Was all he said, in a voice quiet and weak from disuse. She had told him someone was coming for him, and someone had actually come.

"What are you waiting for?" The man that kept him shouted from down the hall, furious and desperate. "Get rid of them!"

Luca cringed away from the sound even as the man's influence pushed against his thoughts, but it was so quiet without the Shadow's power thrumming constantly through his bones, quiet enough to feel the instructions as if they were only shouted at him from afar and not pushed directly into his mind. Not wanting to be impelled to move forward, Luca sunk to his knees with his arm still held up in Ben's grasp, without so much as trying to get it back. He was so tired his legs didn't want to hold him, and all of his energy was devoted to solving the puzzle twisting tighter around his brain, figuring out what was him and what was not.

"Be good, be good," he muttered to himself, bloody hand pressed to his head even as he shook it back and forth to try and get it to clear. She'd told him to be good, to say No, to fight back. If he could fight the voice in his head and not hurt anyone, he would be able to see her soon. He just had to be good.

 

[LouieLouieLouie]

Ben sighed as the line went dead with a click. He supposed he shouldn't have expected the assassin to be able to take out his captors by himself of his own volition. If he had, he likely would've been out of there years ago. At least the kid knew he was coming and hopefully wouldn't lash out at the sight of a strange man breaking into his home.

Upon arrival, he parked near the side of the road a mile or so from the building. And, of course, Evelyn was there, and she wasn't about to take any flak from him. That was two young people he would have to look out for. He thought for a moment he was losing control of the situation, but he quickly realized he was never in control. Powered people, he thought. No point arguing with them.

Thankfully, a police car pulled up behind him just then. The passenger side window rolled down and a man with short, dark hair popped his head out. "Did someone call for the cavalry?"

Ben couldn't help but smile. "Thanks for coming, guys. I really appreciate the backup."

The car parked and the two officers stepped out. Danny was a little shorter than he was but built like a powerhouse. Teresa was taller than either of them, and her loose shirt hid her decently-toned muscles.

"You're lucky," she said, looking over the tops of her sunglasses at the three of them. "I managed to get us on patrol this side of town, so when I have to come in there and save your sorry rear, it won't look suspicious."

He chuckled at that. "Okay, then. Danny, Teresa, this is my source for this op. She prefers to keep her information private, so today, she's codename Parasol. Parasol, these are Danny and Teresa. They're two of my old colleagues and good friends. I trust them with my life, so they're the only ones who know about what's about to go down."

"Hey there, Parasol," Danny said, waving politely. Then he turned to Ben, one eyebrow quirking upward. "You sure she should come with us, Shiver? She's a kid, and I'm pretty sure one of the Lombardis' men could and would snap her like a twig."

"Appearances can be deceiving." Nevertheless, Ben looked over at Evelyn. "So, the plan. You, like you said, stay as far away as you can while staying in range of the security system." He looked her up and down, a little amused at her choice of clothing. "Clever disguise, but Danny's right. It's gonna be dangerous, and if this goes south, you run."

He turned to the officers. "You guys know what to do. Stay back, come in if I radio you or you hear gunfire. Which, I guess, is probably going to happen pretty quick.

"I get in, grab the kid, get out. The adults get him down to the station before the bad guys can follow us. Then we deal with whatever hellstorm that kicks up down there." He had to admit, it felt a little good to be part of a team again. Working as a detective, he had a whole lot of acquaintances, but the solo career wasn't ideal for partners.

"Sounds good," Teresa said. "Everybody, try not to die."

"Try not to die," Ben and Danny echoed. A funny way to encourage each other years ago, it sometimes became a morbidly stark reminder that these things were life-and-death. Ben just hoped it wasn't the latter for any of them.

 

[CanaryCry]

The arrival of a police car had Evelyn on edge, but when Ben didn't react, and when he addressed the people that came from it with a friendly attitude, she made herself relax. These were allies of his and she had to believe that they were free of influence from crime families. Perhaps she would've been mildly annoyed at their continuous appraisal of her as an infant that would only get in the way, but when Ben gave her a codename instead of telling them her real name she had to begin a rapid series of reassessments. As grateful to him as she was for keeping her secrets, it was going to complicate things - keeping her information out of the investigation would mean she had to either leave the second Luca was free, or stick around and claim to be a passing hiker who had heard the gunshots. Either way, it would mean she would have no reason to hang around the police station as the concerned citizen that had tipped someone off about the Ghost. She was already laying down new plans when attenion was on her again.

"Thank you for coming," she said politely at first, and then in a somewhat dry but otherwise unaffected tone, "Rest assured, the child will stay out of your way." Some other day it would bother her that no one saw her as an adult, but she knew she would, at least, definitely be a liability in an actual fight. All she could worry about now was Luca, and not the trio in front of her's strange 'pep talk'.

"I had to disable the cameras at the entryway of the property for your approach, but I've knocked out one out back as well." She hadn't know the ones at the front gates existed until she'd arrived, and she hoped it wasn't going to ruin their plans. Three cameras malfunctioning in different areas might make their target think there was a technical problem and not a targeted assault, so hopefully even if he was nervous it wouldn't make him suspicious. "I'll switch off the ones in front of the house as you come into their range, and let the ones out here come back on. When you're ready."

Once Ben was at the house, it wouldn't matter if the man inside knew there was a patrol car out front. He would have his hands full with trying to get Luca away while the young man was heavily sedated - or worse, trying to get him to fight through it.

 

[LouieLouieLouie]

Ben was thankful for two things as he approached the building, stepping quietly and keeping his gun ready at his side. For one, the building was relatively small. It wouldn't take long to search it, although he wasn't looking forward to even a few minutes in there. Secondly, it seemed that Evelyn's trick was working, since he heard no alarms or shouting as he approached the front door.

He kept his back to the wall and clear of any windows as he sidled up to it. He jiggled the handle, and unsurprisingly, it was locked. Ben had brought his lockpicking kit for just the situation, and he'd brushed up on the skill a couple days prior. After several seconds, the lock clicked, and he slowly turned the handle and swung open the door.

It was a simple hallway leading into the interior. There were a few doors along the sides, but there were no windows into the rooms, and each door was unlabeled and nondescript. Ben groaned internally. Finding Luca was going to be a lot harder if he had no idea which room he was in. According to Evelyn, there was also a basement, and even if the kid wasn't in one of them, there could very well be a squad of guards bursting out of a stairwell behind one of the doors at any moment.

As quietly as he tried to move through the halls, it was inevitable he'd run into someone. He poked his head around a corner, and with his luck, there were two men standing in the corridor, and one of them was looking directly at him. He swore under his breath as the guard shouted, "Intruder! Inside ground level, southern corner!" The other man ran at him, motioning to pull a gun from his side.

Adrenaline kicking in, Ben ran at him and swung a fist directly into his face. He felt a crack at the impact, and the guard's face began streaming blood as he fell to the ground. Not waiting to see what the second guard would do, Ben turned and ran down the adjoining hallway. His chest clenched as a loud siren began wailing and red lights flashed from the ceiling. He had to find the assassin, now.

Incredibly, after only a few seconds of running, he heard a loud crash come from nearby. Less like a lamp falling off a table and more like an entire wall getting smashed down. Every instinct told him to turn tail and run, but it was the only clue of where a powered person might be, and he had a feeling he knew which one it was.

He skidded around a corner and froze. Yep, he'd found him. Less than a dozen yards down the hall stood a dark-haired, lanky young man in pajamas. The only things signifying his identity as anyone other than the average college student were the bloodied handcuffs dangling from one wrist and the pile of debris he was stepping through. Oh, and the black, shadowy tendrils undulating from his outstretched hand.

Without warning, Luca swung his hand in an arc, and Ben only winced a little as a whip of black energy slashed through the air at him. The wall next to him crumbled, and he had to dodge out of the way of some flying brick, but the energy itself had disappeared where it would have touched him. Immediately, another tendril lashed out, but it passed through him harmlessly.

Although it wasn't usually as powerful or useful as most other abilities out there, Ben was grateful for his own at times like these. He came into contact with a lot of upset or frightened people in his line of work, and the ability had allowed him to talk down or at least subdue the person, which had saved his skin multiple times. Now, for example.

"Hey, kiddo," he said in the gentlest voice he could. "Luca, right? It's me, Ben. Evelyn sent me here to get you." The boy's face was blank, but it twitched for a moment, like he had made some sort of connection. Ben sighed in relief, holstering his gun for the moment.

Ben began to walk toward him slowly, showing Luca his empty palms. "I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? We're gonna get you out of here, and everything's gonna be just fine, okay?" The kid's eyes squinted just a bit, like he was trying to see through a fog. Probably the mind control, he figured. But he showed signs of being able to fight it. Maybe, he thought, if he would let Ben touch him, the nullification would spread to him, and he'd get a clearer picture of what was happening.

Just as he got close to Luca, the boy raised his arm, but the black energy waving in the air fizzled as Ben clasped his hand around his wrist. Ben watched his eyes brighten just a bit, like a dark film over the surface had dissipated.

"You came," Luca said, and Ben nodded encouragingly. He was fighting it, remembering Evelyn, remembering what she'd said about him.

"We did, kiddo. We did. And we're not leaving without you."

A shout came from down the hall, and he saw a man shouting and waving his arms, trying to command Luca. Probably the mind-controller, then. The kid in front of him cringed, then almost immediately slumped to his knees. To make matters worse, a few guards burst out of a door behind the man, and two gunshots rang out. "You idiots, don't shoot, you might hit the Asset," the man was shouting, but Ben was already bending over Luca, scooping one arm under his back and the other over his thighs, hoisting him up like a sack of potatoes.

"Okay," he said, stumbling backward and hauling Luca back down the hallway he'd come from. "Okay. Okay, okay. You're out of commission, they know I'm here, and there are guns." He scrambled through the corridors, retracing his steps. "Now would be a great time for the cavalry."

 

[CanaryCry]

There was so much noise, but for a moment Luca had felt so quiet. It was a shock, suddenly not feeling the familiar, surging power in his chest, in his head, in his bones. He'd felt it in his body for most of his life, and the feeling had gotten so strong as he got older it had made it hard to concentrate on anything else. Now things were starting to come through clearer than they had in years - at least, it would have been clear if it hadn't been traveling through the sedatives turning his brain to mud, and the shout of someone else's voice in his head. He just wanted it all to go away. He wanted the quiet.

The initial gunshot that whizzed right past him must have tipped off the men guarding him that something was wrong. The power that should have been visibly present around his body while in use was gone, and it hadn't thrown up any automatic shields as it usually did whenever Luca was in danger. His gift wasn't protecting him, and they couldn't risk anything happening to him while he was vulnerable, not if they wanted their most powerful weapon back in any useful condition.

Luca heard their shouts dimly, and didn't protest when he was suddenly lifted off the ground, other then to keep one of his arms between himself and the body carrying him so that he wouldn't hit his head as the man hurried through the house. The words reached him slowly, on a delay, and he could barely parse through it all. Don't shoot, we're not leaving without you, cavalry. He didn't know what it all meant. He had never seen the lights so red, or heard so much shouting and commotion inside the house. He had never been on an assignment without his gift with him, and it was scary not to have it. All he could do was try to focus on the thought of Evelyn's face and what she'd told him.

If he could just be good and try not to listen to what he was told to do, he would get to see her soon.

**********************​

Evelyn flinched so hard at the sound of gunfire she almost lost her footing and dropped to the ground, and immediately her heart starting beating even faster than it had been already, more blind panic than just nerves. Her instinct was to hide, but Ben and Luca were in danger and even if she couldn't fight she had to do something. Even terrified, she fought for calm and fell back on pieces of contingency plans she had thought through only hours ago, starting with a message to Danny and Teresa.

GO NOW. CALL FOR BACKUP. MORE THAN WE THOUGHT.

The next step was sending a simple command to the electronic gates at the front of the property, short enough for Ben to hop over but too much to just go slamming through with a police car. She had no doubt the officers could manage it, but opening the gate was easier, and as their car shot past on the road she was already turning to run back into the trees. The wall around the property was brick, and almost too tall, but she wasn't a complete weakling and with a little help from a large rock she was able to haul herself up on top of it to get a line of sight on the building itself. Usually she didn't need such a close visual, but this was too much, too panicked. She had to see what she was doing.

Being in sight of the building made it easier to visualize what her targets would be and she started with the house, switching off all the cameras first, then the alarms, then the emergency lights she could see through a window. As rich as the Lombardi family was, it was no shock to her that the house was relatively Smart, and once she was able to lock on to a cell phone that had the right apps and permissions she could control a lot just by communicating with it. First, she searched for the cell phones in the building that were moving, pinpointed Ben's familiar signal and then the rest - with the phone that controlled all the lights, she shut everything off at once, then switched one off and on for Ben to see like a beacon. No one was at the front door where he had come in so he was on the right path.

The second she saw him coming through the door with a body over his shoulders, police cruiser already barreling down on the property from the front of the house, she switched gears and started looking for the few cars parked around the property. Cringing already at the effort, she counted off the seconds until the nearest cell phone signal breached the side door, then set off each alarm in quick succession. They were in the opposite direction of where Ben was fleeing, and she hoped that it would at least grab the guards' attention, give the man a few extra seconds to get away, to get to the safety of his friends.

All of it was too much for her gifts to maintain - truly, it was more than she should've managed at all, but the desperation of seeing Luca and Ben in danger had given her a push she never knew she could receive. Still, her head was pounding already at the exertion, and she knew setting off the alarms might make someone look around and spot her, so she had to give up on trying to help more and get herself down off the wall before she made herself a liability. Hitting the ground was rough on her feet, and she had to lean on the wall a moment as a wave of dizziness washed over her, then gave herself a shake and started making her way as carefully and quietly as possible back towards the road. She couldn't bring herself to leave without knowing what happened, but part of her ached to think she wouldn't be able to see Luca face-to-face before the building was swarming with police cars and she had to make herself scarce. All that mattered was that he get out safe. Her desire to see him would have to wait.