Losing.
Badly.
"Whirlwind Kick!" Leo spins and his shoe rocks Neon once more.
Blood spills from Neon's nose, his visor cracked, glowing faintly.
Leo bounces back and forth, "You know," he shadow boxes the air, "they oughta' start calling you Firefly"
Neon's glow almost flickers in response. "I'm tired of you kids giving everything titles." He chuckles while holding his ribs. "You all want to be the next big thing, so you live your life as wild as possible no matter who it affects."
"Kids? Nigga you're not that older than me."
"You and everyone, naming all their moves, pretending to be someone they're not. It's so pointless." Neon heaved.
"C'mon Neon, everyone knows that calling out your moves makes them more powerful. For instance." Leo picks up a small chunk of debris. "I COULD throw this at you normally or like…bash your head in with it I guess. But if I-"
PEW PEW PEW PEW
Four desperate shots.
Four missed.
Leo looks around after evading the last blast and laughs. "It's like you weren't even trying to hit me." He jests. "Anyways, I have this move where-"
"I wasn't" Neon says in excited labored breaths.
Leo looks up to see a mass of falling debris. "Wait wha?"
"Now!" Neon says before turning into pure light momentarily before the crash.
CRUNCH
"FUCK!" Screamed from Leo, jammed between two pillars and his right leg pinned by a steel beam.
Neon limps over and aims his fist at Leo, focusing all of his energy into his arm. "No more games for you."
Leo desperately tries to free himself, hyperventilating and can feel that same eerie burning in his chest.
Tap, Tap, Tap.
Neon powers down as he can feel the weight of a pistol knocking on the back of his skull. He nervously turns to the side to see a scruffy haired white guy with crosshair shaped eyes.
BulletProof.
"Aht aht aht. There shall be no foul play on my watch." BP says, twirling his gun around his finger."
"Well who are-" Neon notices a shiny blue bottom on the grip of the hitman's gun. "Don't tell me! Is that?"
"Great, you recognized it! So obviously you know that a recognized holder of a Double B has the authority to grant one provisional hero's license or deputize should I say any individual over the age of 18 as long as said holder is within a range of 50 Km at all-"
"No! Nope! Not dealing with this shit. I don't know what the fuck is going on with this kid, but you all can keep him. I'm done." Neon pushes past BP and begins limping out of the construction site.
"Awwww, but I didn't get to finish." BP says running behind Neon to explain the logistics of the Double B.
"Uhhh..can someone help me please! I think something broke!" Leo screams out from the rubble.
"Oh yeah!" BP says before running to Leo's aid.
Neon is almost out before tripping and falling as if the ground shifted just for him. He pulls himself to his feet and looks up to see Roy sitting atop a perch watching things play out.
Roy stares at Neon intensely then eyes to the exit, silently acknowledging that Neon can leave unharmed.
This infuriated Neon, yet sent shivers down his spine.
He needed permission to leave here alive.
Neon grits his teeth and walks away.
Later…
"Man, this fucking blows!"
Leo laid on the couch, pouting with his arms folded and a cast on his right foot.
The trio had retreated to the Walker Family Home after a quick little ER trip. A squeamish doctor threw up from the sight of all Leo's bruising and mangled flesh, however, by the time the X-rays were done, it revealed he only had a sprained ankle. Bewildered as they were, he was told to wear a cast as a precaution for about three weeks.
"I swear I'm fine!" Leo holds his leg up and kicks it out a few times.
"Stop it!" Shokka smacks Leo upside the head. "Four days out of prison and you're already in trouble. I can't believe you."
Leo stares at his leg, remembering what it just looked like a few hours ago. He can still feel the weight of the construction beams pressing his leg to the ground.
"I'm sorry." Leo says, shaking his head. "I'll be better."
"You better! You just added $695 to your Accountability Tax. Your first payment is due on the first." Shokka says, folding her arms.
"Wha-a! Why! And oh my God, Ma, that's literally in like a week! That's so not fair!" Leo groaned, covering his face with his hands.
"Well that's the cost of your cast, smarty!" Shokka points at Leo. "God! I wish you thought as fast as you talked." She sighs.
That's when Marcel Walker, the "Great Thunder" comes over to comfort Leo. "Oh Shokky, the boy just needs time to readjust. He has been in jail since thirteen years old." Marcel brushes through Leo's scalp. "Hold your head up, you're going to land on your feet eventually."
"I think he landed on his feet pretty hard today, Pop." Roy chuckles. "Don't worry too much Leo, rest your head and watch some TV. We'll try again in a week or so." Roy picks up the remote and turns on the TV.
[INCOMING NEWS: NEW SUPERVILLAIN "SPEED DEMON" IN HIGH SPEED CHASE WI-]
Roy immediately cuts the TV off as Leo covers his face with his hands. "You know, maybe let's just listen to some music. Right?"
Marcel, Leo, and BP all nervously nod their heads in agreement.
"Roy. A word." Shokka turns around and starts walking upstairs.
"I could do for some jazz." BP anxiously chuckles.
"AND WHAT'D I TELL Y'ALL ABOUT BRINGING RANDOM PEOPLE IN MY HOUSE?" Shokka shouts from the top of the stairs.
Upstairs.
"Ma. I'm sorry." Roy says, reaching out to his mother.
"No! You're not!" She says, pulling away. "You need to set a better example for your brother!
"I-"
"No! Leo has no sense of direction right now! No goals or motivations outside of beating people up or knocking up some good-for-nothing."
"I'm pretty sure he's-"
"No! This is the same type of "fun" that got him arrested in the first place!"
"Ma! You know that's not true! He was framed!"
"WAS HE?!" Shokka yells, then sits down exasperated. "...because with the way he talks. I don't know anymore."
"C'mon, Ma! I know you aren't seriously suggesting Leo murdered a man at 13. A man like Sigurd Gunn at that!?
"I'm not! Well. I'm not trying to…it's just…" Shokka's voice breaks up as she begins to cry. "I just can't lose my baby boy again."
"Ma." Roy sits down next to his mother and rubs her back. "It's okay. I won't let that happen."
Roy notes that this is his first time in his parents' room in years. On the nightstand lies two picture frames. One of the family as we know it on vacation. The second is an older photo, Marcel holds an even younger Roy and Shokka holding a baby, that isn't Leo. The writing underneath the picture says 'Welcome Home, Baby Ray.'
Shokka takes a deep breath before speaking. "It's been 20 years since the fire. And I still carry that pain as if it were yesterday."
The Fire.
Roy doesn't remember it too much, or maybe he doesn't want to. He was only a year or two old when it happened. Ray had just been born. It wouldn't be until Middle School when he'd actually learn what happened that night.
May 31st, 1981
The Historically Black Neighborhood of Green Ward in New D.C. was set ablaze in the dead of night by the racist extremist group known as the Ku Klux Klan. The attack left 40-600 African Americans and Gifted either deceased or displaced.
The Walker family previously lived in Green Ward before moving out to Greenbelt following this incident.
"Even after Caine bought us this house. Nothing could fill that hole those bastards dug out of us." Shokka reveals.
Roy lingered on the name, where had he heard it? Instead of probing, Roy continued to console his mother and let her grieve.
"Nothing, but Leo. When his father came onto our doorsteps a year later, covered in rain, sweat, and dried blood, carrying him, I nearly collapsed. I couldn't believe it. I almost turned him away, it didn't feel right. I couldn't see me and Marcel raising you and someone who wasn't Ray, wasn't ours."
"But?" Roy asks, wiping her tears.
"But, when I worked up the courage to finally hold Lef's baby. Leo opened those big starry eyes of his at me and started laughing. Can you believe that?" Shokka tearfully chokes out a laugh. "I didn't want to put him down, I couldn't put him down, and after hearing Lef's story, how could I? It became fate. To give him all the adoration and cherishment that I could never give Ray. I knew he'd never replace Ray in our hearts, but I just hoped I could set him on a better path. See how far that got me?" She puts her face back into her hands.
"Ma! He's alive! Annoying as hell, but alive." Roy manages to get a weak chuckle out of her. "You didn't put Leo in jail, and you definitely didn't burn Green Ward. You have to stop blaming yourself, Ma." Roy stands up and playfully flexes his muscles. "Plus, have you seen me? This is all you and Pop. The Great Thunder and Shokka who were officially recognized as Heroes by the Black Bullet during the Gifted Rights Movement in 1986. I couldn't have asked for better parents."
Shokka wipes her eyes. "I cherish you, Roy." She says, hugging him.
"I cherish you too, mama." Roy says, pulling her in closer.
Downstairs.
"So your parents named you Bullet Proof?"
"It's called an alias! I can't be running around telling everyone my real name!"
"Uh huhhh…right." Roy's father, Marcel folds his arm and leans against the wall. "You're aware, you're sitting in my house correct? Please, introduce yourself correctly before I become a more inhospitable host.
"Nooooope. Don't care!" BP crosses his arms and looks away from Marcel. "You don't scare me, I can cross my arms too!"
"Leo, you better get your friend." Marcel says glaring at Leo who was returning a bewildered stare at BP.
"Duuuuuuude, what the fuuuuck?" Leo exasperates.
"Leo, language."
"Sorry, Pop."
"Yeah, I'm sorry too, cause I'm not telling you my name. It's classified." BP adds to be petty.
Marcel's laugh booms through the household, shaking the ground beneath them. "You sure have some spunk. Reminds me of someone. Hmmm…" Marcel holds his chin in wonder.
"Nah, I'm a ghost in the system, a shadow, a faceless nobody who only comes out when-"
"You're one of Zoom Cassidy's sons, ain't ya?" Marcel guesses.
"WHAT THE FUCK! HOW!" BP throws his hands down in frustration before regaining his composure. "I mean, what would make you think that?"
Leo looks blankly between the two of them.
"Well, for starters, you have those same crosshair shaped eyes. In my unit in 'Nam, our sniper, Zoom, a real asshole too, had those same eyes. That's no coincidence." Marcel explains.
"Well you're right about the asshole part, but that's it! Eyes like these are pretty fucking popular in my line of work."
"Me and Zoom weren't close, at all, we actually hated each other."
"Same here." BP blurts out, before face palming.
"However, we did have a combat medic named Esme who could transfer wounds. I heard those two hit it off when we returned home. Hmmm…with a name like 'BulletProof' I'd assume you have some sort of healing factor."
BP groans and Leo bursts into laughter.
"Wait, what were the names of your guns again? Lefty, and Esme-" Leo is cut off.
"Esmerelda" BP bluntly states.
"Well?" Marcel probes.
"OK! You're right! But I'm not one of hiskids. He just created me is all. But he's a sack of shit, I don't like him and I don't want to talk about him." BP reveals.
"And your mother?" Marcel asks.
"Dead. And I don't want to talk about that either. BP responds.
Sensing the tonal shift, Marcel decides to stop pressing the boy. He walks over and places a warm hand on BP's shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss."
BP doesn't break away immediately. "Quintin….Quintin Cassidy."
"I'm sorry for your loss, Quintin."
BP hated today, this was the second time now where he's received unexpected kindness and he doesn't like it at all, or so he believes.
"Now see, was that so hard?" Marcel laughs and pats BP on the back.
BP tries to play it off, but a small pat from "The Great Thunder" nearly launches him across the room. "Yeah." He winces. "Whatever."
Leo joins in on the laughter as well. "Well, I must say, even though I could give two shits about your father, it appears you feel the same. I really respected your mother, so I'm honored to have you in my home." Marcel concludes.
"Ahhhh." Leo gasps. "Language, Pop."
"Leo, this is MY house. Go curse in your own goddamn house." Marcel chuckles. "You know your father was there too? Fighting in 'Nam with me and Quintin's parents."
Leo rolls his eyes. "Apparently he's fighting everywhere as it seems. Funny how everyone has a story about him except his own son."
"I won't defend your father's lengthy absences, but think of it like he's fighting everywhere to get back to you." Marcel reassures. "But that's not why I brought it up. I'm just so amazed that the next generation of that old unit is sitting in this household. Gotta be fate right?" He turns to BP. "Quintin, how did you even come to meet my boys?"
At the UC's Headquarters of Defense, the Octagon, moments after Victor Caine finished explaining the Elias Vance situation to BulletProof.
"Alright, find out the connection between this 'Creature Dealer' and the mysterious Father Paco of the church. Got it. Now can you please tell Murphy and his runts to fuck off." BP explains to Caine as he heads to the door.
"Not so fast." Victor Caine flashes those glassy blue eyes of his and devilish grin. "Tell me if you recognize any of these files." Caine passes out several dossiers across his desk.
BP impatiently flips through several before finding one that said [Zoom Cassidy.] "Ok, what the fuck is this shit?"
"A brief history lesson, my son."
"Stop calling me that."
"Before the Enhanced Powers and Global Recognition Act of 1964, international conflicts regarding Gifted were very much a tricky scenario. We were fresh out of the Warlord Era and no country wanted to risk starting a new one. Then came Vietnam. I put together a small unit full of C-lister and B-lister Gifted to help the war effort, those capable but not strong enough to shake the global stage. This is where I met your father, your mother…" Caine passes out two more dossiers titled [Thunder] and [Phoenix] "and where I'd meet the fathers of your little friends here."
BP flippantly flips through the files until he sees a picture of Leo. "You gotta be kidding me!"
"Consider it fate. All the members of the unit bore children sometime after the war. I want you to keep a close eye on all of them. I have interests in the next generation of that team. And you're already off to a good start, you've already met two of them. Isn't that swell?"
"Yeah yeah, I hope your head swells up and pops, old man." BP collects all the files and wedges them in his armpit before turning to leave.
"Take Care. Happy Hunting, My So-"
The door SLAMS shut.