Heroes Dawn

Carmilla

Carmilla jumped on her bike and drove in full speed across the streets, her long black coat flying behind her, the bright red hair that escaped from the hoodie thrown back in the air.

“60 seconds” Announced a man’s voice.

She fixed her black mask slightly, this last model was a lot more comfortable than the last one, only covering around her eyes. LaFontaine was getting pretty good at this.

“40 seconds”

“I’ll get there in 20”

“One of these days you’re going to get yourself killed Carmilla.” She heard a stern motherly voice say.

“Better you than us!” Said the mad scientist. She heard a punch noise on the background “Ouch Perr! She knows I’m just kidding!”

She smirked. Those dorks. Her dorks.

“How many of them?”

“The police reported three suspects on a gray van, fleeting from the bank.”

“I have eyes on them.”

Carmilla could see the van and, through the mirror, two figures that appeared to be male. Stepping on the gas she approached the van from the drivers side.

“You have ten seconds to stop this van!” She shouted, looking inside the van. You would be surprised by how many times this actually worked. She guessed some people just preferred to go directly to prison without visiting the hospital first.

“Fuck you bitch!” Well, not these ones.

“I warned you”

She quickly took her staff from the handle on her back and shove it through the window. The glass shattered and she covered her face with the hoodie. The driver was knocked out and his partner was trying to keep the van from crashing. Carmilla gave him a stern look and he managed to stop the van, looking back at her in fear.

“Get the hell out!” She ordered as she hopped off the bike.

The man obeyed. She tied him to a street lamp and took out the unconscious driver from the van to do the same. As she was doing so, she heard a crack and then steps.

“You don’t want to do this.” She said calmly.

“Oh yeah? I’m the one holding the gun! So untie my partners and get the hell out of my face before I blow it!”

She smirked, turning around to face the man with a gun pointed at her face. It took two seconds to see the slight shaking of his grip.

“You’ve never even fired a gun before did you?”

“Shut up! I’ll shoot you, I swear to God I will! Untie them! Now!!” He looked at his partners for a second and that was all it took for Carmilla to grab his arm.

“Carmilla! Are you okay?”

The guy was just a kid but he was stronger than he looked. Still, Carmilla kept a strong grip on his arm. Then the gun went off.

“Carmilla!!”

But he was already down and she disposed of the weapon. Luckily she had been able to point the gun at the sky just before it went off.

She took a couple of seconds to breathe in before reporting back. “I’m fine. Just a minor incident.” She put her staff back in place and hoped on the bike again.

“The suspects are down.” She had managed to take the gun from the guy just in time and knock him down with its handle. “How much time until the police arrives?”

LaFontaine

She looked at the boy sitting next to her, waiting for him to finish his computer analysis.

“30 seconds” Said the computer geek and she smiled and nodded, repeating the information back to Carmilla.

“I’ll be home in 15 minutes”

Perry was pacing around the room ever since she heard the gun shots. Poor Perry, she would always get a nerve wreck when things got a little out of handle but she still insisted around, as much as she could. JP was staring at the computer screen watching as the dot that represented Carmillas bike swam across the city roads. He had been just a kid when he arrived at the police station asking for a job. LaFontaine remembers it well because he looked so frightened, just like they did back when they arrived. Everyone laughed of course. But then again they laughed at them too, almost every day until they proved themselves very useful in the lab. Sticks and stones they guess. His hair was a little messy and he needed a good shave. They barely saw him these days, since he had gotten a second job. They gave him a good look. He had grown so much this past years.

“Good job Jeep. Keep up the good work” He smiled at her, openly, as a kid does when receiving praise from a parent, and nodded.

They looked around. Perry kept pacing. Jesus, if they don’t stop her she might burn her shoes with all that walking. They got up and walked up to her, putting themselves in her path to force her to stop. She did, looking at them, her eyes filled with worry.

“I am telling you, one of these days she is going to get herself killed LaFontaine. And then I don’t know what we’re supposed to do with all of this.” She swung her arms around pointing at the room.

“Well, it would make a great underground pub” They joked smiling at their worried friend. But it only got her to change her gaze from worried to mad in a spit second.

“This is not a joke LaF. She is out there almost every night putting herself on the line. And for what? For this ungrateful little-” LaF moved one step closer, grabbing her hand. That seemed to ease her and they saw her shoulders relax a bit. They were looking at her hand, her beautiful small hand, and they could feel her eyes on them.

“She is a tough bone Perr, you know it.” They looked into her eyes. God, was she beautiful. “And she can handle herself. She chose this. All we can do is be here for her.” They squeezed her hand, gently rubbing her thumb against her palm “And for each other.” 

This seemed to wipe almost all the worries from her face as she sighed and gave a shy smile back to them. LaF smiled proudly and just stared back into her childhood friend’s eyes. Those blue eyes just staring back at them, her head now slightly reclined to the right in and inquisitive way. They want to tell her. They think she knows. She has to. But why isn’t she saying anything then? She won’t, they know Perry much too well to know that she will always wait for others to tell her what’s wrong even if she has already known it for ages. But this isn’t wrong is it? It can’t be. The way they feel around her can’t be wrong. Everytime she so much as looks at them and smile, they think their chest is going to explode. The question being: does she feel the same? They have been friends since 5, there isn’t much they don’t know about each other. Hell, there’s probably nothing. Except this. This feeling that is eating them inside, it wants to come out, to be free, but they can’t loose Perry. Not her. Everyone else except her. And they won’t drive her away just because of their feelings.

“Lafontaine?” Her sweet voice snapped them out of their daydream. “Are you feeling okay?” She pressed her hands against her cheeks gently. They had to summon all their strength not to close their eyes and sink into that gentle touch.

“Yes, I’m fine.” They said smiling. Their hand was still on Perry’s hand.

“Were you going to say something?” There it was. Take it you stupid brainiac! It was time. She was going for it. She was going to-

“I’m wiped!” Said a raspy voice entering the room.

Perry quickly took her hands from their face and they felt hollow for a second.

They cleared their throat. “Welcome back to your lair mistress of the Dark. Or should I say NightShadow?” She smirked but then remembered about the other night when she had introduced her to Laura. Shit, I’m so dead.

“First, stop calling it lair! Second, thanks for the heads up about that journalist friend of yours.” She shot a deadly stare at them.

“Okay, okay! Before this gets into a ‘let’s kill the wicked smart scientist who is also our friend’ game, let me explain okay? She is a good person, fair. Did you read what she wrote about you?” They grabbed the newspaper “She is really invested in this crusade of hers to find out who the NightShadow is and I don’t know why but she seems to be on our side. I thought it best to keep her close. Usually the closer things are, the blinder we get right?” They gave a quick look in Perry’s direction and she was looking at her, her gaze unreadable.

Carmilla seemed to think for a moment and then gave in and sighed “Fine. But next time a heads up would be nice.”

LaFontaine looked at her doing her best imitation of Carmilla. “Don’t act like all tough and broody. I saw the way you looked at her when she left.” They smiled proud of themselves because they could see that Carmilla was getting a slight blush on her cheeks but then felt their leg burn from the strong poke her friend had just delivered with her staff. But she was smiling. Now, that’s something unusual.

Laura

She hated being the new girl, she couldn’t wait for someone new to be hired so she could be left in peace to do her work. That sounded so mean. She didn’t want anyone else to suffer from this. She sighed heavily as she walked across the tables to the chief editor’s door.

“Excuse me sir, I have your coffee.” There goes yet another drop of my dignity.

“Now listen to me! You either deliver that my midnight or we’re done!” Yelled the middle aged man at his phone and signaling her to put the coffee on the table and leave.

She did, walking back to her desk and dropping herself on the chair. Only one more day Hollis, as soon as his assistant comes back you’re off the hook and back to full speed investigative journalism. This brought a slight smile to her face, as she wrapped up for the day. She felt tired, exhausted to be honest. But then again, insomnia can cause that, especially when it becomes a permanent thing. She had just finished writing another piece on NightShadow. Who was this girl? What drove her to do all this? Last night she had kicked three guys butts after they robbed the local bank. The brunette smiled, looking at the picture of these guys, tied to a lamp post. She was just the person she needed to help her find the responsible for what happened to Danny. The tiny reporter put her hand on her chest, where she wore almost at all times a necklace, that looked like a really small pen drive. Well, it was just supposed to look that way but it was a real and functional one.

The days were getting cold now as September approached and she wrapped herself on her jacket and scarf as she was walking down the street to her biclycle. As she reached the bicycle stand she looked inside the coffee just in front of it and she saw a slightly curled black hair that looked familiar. She smiled and slowed her pace to look carefully at the girl sitting on the corner of the coffee shop, legs spread across the side of the booth she was occupying, newspaper in one hand, cup of coffee on the other. “You are not going inside that coffee shop Laura Hollis.” She thought. But she was already crossing the door. What is it with this girl?

She stopped right in front of the booth and the raven haired girl didn’t even flinch, she was totally caught up reading, her dark brown eyes trailing the words on each page. She took the time to look at her, it actually seemed like a scene from a movie.

“Can I help you with something?” The other girl said without taking her eyes of the article she was reading. It was the one the brunette had written. My article. This brought a cocky smile to her face.

“I was just going to ask you if it was okay for me to seat down but I wouldn’t want to lose a reader, so I’ll just sit at the bar” Her voice seemed to wake up the dark haired girl, whose eyes trailed from the paper to her face. She seemed to be caught by surprise for a moment but then just smiled politely and pointed at the seat in front of her while folding the newspaper and setting it aside.

“I thought you were someone else. Coffee?” The brunette nodded and Carmilla signaled the waiter pointing at her own cup. “So what are you doing around here Miss Hollis?”

Oh. She so had it coming. She knew she would pay for the other night.

“No one actually calls me that, like never. Well, maybe my boss.” She frowned but then smiled “Laura is fine. And I work there.” She pointed at a big building across the street and some blocks ahead. “This is actually my morning and afternoon stop, like every day."

“You like the coffee that much?” The other girl said.

"I actually just look outside the window, watch the people go by, leading their lives." She smiled, looking outside, partially ashamed about what she had just shared.

The other girl didn't seem to judge, just nodding and looking at Laura like she had just said something extremely interesting. "So, the lives outside are more interesting then the ones inside?" There was something of a tease in her voice and Laura picked it up and let out an honest smile.

"Some might be worth it." When the other girl didn’t answer she let a small laugh out and looked straight into her eyes.

“Was that my article you were just reading?” Carmilla had picked up the newspaper.

“Was it? I didn’t really notice.” She said in a disaffected way.

“You’re a terrible liar, you know that?” The small brunette said finishing her coffee.

“Oh yeah? What makes you say that?” Carmilla was opening it at the page of the article.

“That newspaper is from days ago”

“Maybe I like old news.” This conversation sounded more and more like a questioning, but Laura was stubborn, she knew, and she did not like to lose.

“Maybe. But it’s heavily creased, you can clearly see it has been opened several times on that page.” Laura was now bending over the table, her finger pointing at the evidence, triumphantly. She looked up and caught up with Carmillas gaze, which was now glued in her eyes. They were closer now, the dark haired girl had put herself forward when trying to “hide” the newspaper from the other girl. Laura couldn’t bring herself to sit back down completely, she was lost on the other girls eyes. That’s when she saw them quickly trailing her lips and then back to her eyes and she felt something heavy on her chest which made her snapped out of it, getting up.

“Well, it was nice meeting you here but I have to go now” Laura was desperately trying to find her wallet while avoiding the other girls eyes and trying to even her breath.

“It’s already paid for.” Carmilla said getting up “Got ahead of you this time, cupcake. May I walk with you outside?” She was smiling, her hands in her pockets and the newspaper under her arm.

Laura smiled and nodded, heading for the door. She took the time to get her head straight. What was she thinking, falling for this girls shameless flirt like that? She headed to the bicycle stand and stopped on her bicycles side.

“So, this is me. I’ll just be heading home now. Thank you for the coffee, the next one is on me.” The words just came out of her mouth before she could even think.

“So, there will be a next one” Carmilla was wearing this devilish smile, seeing Laura struggle to find an answer. But then she looked at the brunettes bicycle and her expression changed. “Hum, as much as I enjoy seeing you struggle with yourself...how are you going to ride that?” She was pointing at the bicycle.

Laura looked at it. What does she mean, how am I going to – And then she saw it. The back wheel was completely deformed. Someone had crashed against it. What in the freely hell happened to my bike?

“No. No, no, no, no, no.” She leaned to touch the wheel “Oh come on!!” She let herself fall against the bicycle stand and sighed. Then she got up and breathe in decisively. Carmilla was just looking at her, her eyes wide open. Probably thinking I’m a complete lunatic.

“Well, I guess it’s walking for me today. I’ll get take care of it tomorrow. Better get going.” The brunette looked at Carmilla and smiled, starting to walk “Thank you again.”

“Wait!” This stopped her. “I can give you a ride. That is if you don’t mind.” The other girl was smiling but Laura could hear something of a dare in her voice. She ignored it because the ride would actually be great, she is not feeling like walking so much to get home. “And if you’re not afraid of that” Carmilla was now smiling, such a proud smile, Laura thought, and pointing at a huge black bike. Laura tried to seem disaffected but failed miserably as she smiled widely and walked in the bike’s direction. What a beauty. She walked around it and stopped in front of Carmilla.

“I see you like bikes. So is that a yes?” Still, the daring voice. Laura smiled. What the hell, why not? It’s just a ride back home.

“Yes.” Carmilla gave her a helmet and they hopped on the bike.

And now she was realizing that she had just walked into a trap as she was going to have to grab the other girl during the trip. She could almost see her smiling victoriously through the helmet. And that was when she gave in. You know what? I know how to play this game too. She sat down and started wrapping her arms around Carmilla, her hands slowly trailing from her back to her hips. The other girl stopped for a second and Laura could feel that she stopped breathing. Good. That’ll teach her not to mess with me. That was when she started feeling the other girl’s heart race and her own breath caught.

They drove across the streets until she signaled Carmilla to stop as soon as they reached her house. They took their helmets off and she could she that the raven haired girl was still flustered from before. She was trying to act all broody as the previous time they had been together but she could see in her eyes that there was a lot more in her then what she showed. The small brunette hopped off the bike and gave her helmet back to Carmilla.

“Thank you for the ride. And the coffee.” The other girl just nodded as she leaned to give a quick peck on Carmilla’s cheek which was warm, against her cold lips. She smiled at the lack of reaction from the other girl and headed home. She only heard the bike working again when she stepped inside the house.

“Maybe that’s something worth trying” was the last thing that crossed her mind before she headed to a much needed shower.