2.26.2 – Being a hero sometimes means pain

2.0 - Edited by: Rellawing, AlliterativeArts - 11/29/2020

The day progressed without any further messages exchanged. Leona helped Quinn do some chores around the house and reviewed everything she’d done and went through the events of the last few days. When Goonie seemingly just appeared in the living room next to her, Leona nearly fell over from shock.

Goonie stared at her with a raised eyebrow. Leona blushed at how distracted she had been to not notice her coming into their home and rushed to tell her the less embarrassing bits of her northern adventure.

After dinner, Leona talked about Padua and the problems Detective Kirby had gotten reports about. After getting the basics, Goonie and Quinn insisted on helping her so they all went into the kitchen where she spread out the file on the table. Each of them took a third of the papers and they went over the contents as best they could. The three hoped to notice something that alone one could miss.

Pouring through the documents for a good long while Leona was getting ready to give up on finding something helpful when Quinn smiled like a prideful cat.

“I have something!” she exclaimed.

Drawn in, the other two pushed in closer to all the documentation she was looking over. “There’s something weird here… see how there are sixteen kids in this ‘all campers’ picture? Well, where the heck did he go, ‘cause I’m not seeing him in any other shots, group or otherwise.”

They looked at her wonderingly. “I’m saying, this boy disappeared from the camp,” Quinn said, “There’s nothing in my stack indicating he was ever there to begin with… so this pic with him in it was an oversight.”

Leona’s eyes widened in understanding as she gave a low whistle. “That’s scary.” She couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the kid.

Goonie headed back to her pile, reviewed a few things and smiled. “I do have him checking in here in these records, but he’s gone later. Only one Bruce at the check-in, and none in the completion awards.”

Leona’s heart drummed in her chest. Leona immediately started texting Kirby.

“Dictation mode. Email: Detective Kirby. Begin. ‘Did you notice the missing child? According to the records you shared, there was a boy named Bruce that checked into the camp, but never checked out. It sounds extreme, but were there any reports of children’s corpses turning up? If a child has disappeared, this could be very serious.’” She pressed the confirmation button and took pictures of the files in question and attached them to the email. Leona wondered how the camera worked without a lens, but perhaps the glass itself was the lens among other things.

She sent the images off before looking at Quinn. “Great catch, big sis.” She winked, happy that they’d found something they could use to prosecute the Camp, even though it meant a poor kid was vanished.

Quinn grinned. “Well, naturally. Only the amazing perception of a semi-professional DJ--”

Her words were cut off when the front door of their condo suddenly burst inwards.

Four men in masks, dressed all in black, all holding guns rushed in commando-style. One closed the door behind them while the other three ran up to where the Ramses women were looking over the files.

“Stand up.” one said, point his gun directly at Goonie. Quinn gave him the finger right away as the last two men surrounded them.

“We don’t want trouble,” Goonie said, standing up slowly with her hands up. “Stand up girls,” she said calmly.

Leona gaped. Her family had nerves of steel. She wondered what this attack was about. Was it about the files? Was it something else?

She’d been careful, but now her family was at risk. She couldn’t protect them in this form. She panicked and called her powers. HOW DARE THEY COME INTO HER HOME AND THREATEN HER FAMILY?! She wasn’t going to hesitate and let her family get hurt.

“Argh!” the men cried together as the flash heralded her transformation. One of the guns went off, spitting out bullets. Aurora felt the impacts against her field, not that it moved her. Goonie, however, cried out in pain beside her. In the second it took to change, one of them shot in surprise and Goonie had a bloody wound in her side.

She wasn’t fast enough and things were already heading in the absolute wrong direction. She thought the flash would put them off guard, one of them had started firing randomly instead.

The bloody spot grew quickly. The men leveled their guns at Aurora and Quinn stepped in front, valiantly putting up her fists. “Get the HELL OUT OF OUR HOUSE!” She growled as they opened fire.

Aurora’s eyes narrowed and she leapt up, sweeping her arms in front of Quinn to create a curtain of light to protect her family. All the bullets bounced off, ricochetting around the apartment. The intruders started panicking, firing all they had at Aurora but her wall was completely impenetrable to their rounds.

Quinn looked at Aurora and checked if she was okay before looking down at Goonie. “Oh my God, MOM!” she dropped to her knees and hesitated, not wanting to touch anything. “Save her!” she said to Aurora. “You have to get her to a hospital, like right now.”

“I can’t leave you.” Aurora said, her face tear-streaked. She dropped the wall and lashed out with blasts, attacking the men’s weapons first and then their bodies, firing as rapidly as possible in a bombardment. She had to either scare them off or knock them out so she could focus on her mom. QUICKLY!

Their guns went flying all over the room. The man at the door re-opened it and ran off as Aurora blasted the others into unconsciousness.

“Hurry,” Quinn said, her hands bloody now as she tried to press on Goonie’s wound. “There’s… there’s a lot of blood,” she said in shock.

Aurora knelt down and pulled her mom into her arms. She touched the wound and bound it with a halo like a bandage over her torso. She had to get her to a hospital. “Touch me, grab my ankle or whatever. We’ll go as quickly as I can to the hospital.” She said that, but she watched the halo start to dissolve. Aurora’s eyes widened and tears fell from her eyes. Her powers were failing for the first time ever. It was night, maybe it was…

Goonie winced and moaned in pain, suddenly regaining consciousness. “Ah… d-don’t hurt my girls,” she said weakly. Aurora could sense the halo was still in play. Maybe it was doing something she wasn’t aware it could do. She focused on it, tears dripping down her cheeks onto Goonie. She reinforced the feeling and gave her halo all the power she could provide it.

“Mom, it’s okay. They’re gone.” Quinn was still in shock. Her voice was unnaturally calm.

Goonie started to cough a little. “Did they knock me down?” she weakly asked.

Aurora wiped the blood away with her hand to let her and Quinn witness the wound closing rapidly. The halo was still there, still fading in subtly. When it was done, there was a tender-looking red spot. Aurora formed the halo again and snapped it over the wound again, but it wouldn’t dissolve this time. It wouldn’t heal Goonie any further.

“Ow… be careful, sweetie,” Goonie said softly, “That’s tender…”

“I-I think I’m… able to heal.” She cried tears of desperate hope, it had to be enough. She didn’t know how thorough it was.

She looked at Quinn. “Can you take care of Mom for me? I want to hunt down that last asshole. And tie the others up, please.” Aurora angrily stood.

She didn’t know what that last one was going to do. Her identity might have been compromised but how could they have been sure? Why would these men come if not because of an investigation? How and why?

She dashed out of the door, extending her wings as she got a running start on her takeoff.

She blazed out and when she was high enough in the sky she saw the last man running across the lot.

Thankfully, it didn’t take much effort to catch up. With her speed, she blasted past him and sent him flying to boot. She prepared a halo and lassoed him before she came to a stop, skidding on the pavement and rebounded back to the collapsed man and seized her halo like a suitcase handle. She projected her field in a blink over him and lifted off into the sky, taking him extremely high up above the city. High enough that the air started to grow thin and colder. She seized him and pulled him up to her face, her eyes practically burning.

“YOU! Unless you’d like to experience skydiving at night without a parachute, you’re going to tell me why you were in that house, and RIGHT NOW!” She couldn’t help acting like Midnight Avenger when her Goonie had been attacked and nearly killed. She still wasn’t sure she’d be alright, either she or her mom.

“I-I’m sorreeeeee…” he whined, wriggling helplessly in the halo.

“Sorry doesn’t CUT IT!” Aurora roared. “Why were you there? Are you telling me you were there to shoot an old lady and her kids? WHY? Are you such sadistic bastards? What DID YOU WANT?!”

“We just followed the lady home from the cafe… she kicked us out… gonna steal her stuff maybe… have some fun with her… I didn’t hurt no one…”

Aurora’s eyes widened. It had nothing to do with the Padua case? They were common hooligans? She’d read news articles about people vandalizing homes sometimes, but it was never a thing she thought could happen to her family.

“I can’t freaking believe this!” Aurora snarled. “Enjoy the drop, slimeball!” She released him and watched him fall. Tears fell from her eyes and she shook her head.

Scare my family? Attack them? Think about it! Midnight Avenger used fear to scare crooks straight. Maybe this would help.

She zoomed after him and when he was about to hit, she grabbed him and in a blink reinstated the field. The hoodlum had wet himself and worse. She dragged him back toward her home and when they landed, struck him to knock him out.

What was she going to do with this? Three hooligan idiots who shot up their home and nearly killed Goonie...

If she was being honest with herself, she was partially responsible for acting so rashly though. They hadn’t been able to see much and they weren’t after anything but some ‘fun’ and yet she’d escalate the situation rather than dialed things down. And now that she thought about it, there was basically no way they had known about her secret identity but now they might be able to puzzle it together later.

Even so, there was a mystical being looking after her secret identity. There would certainly be rumors of this event since neighbors had started to take notice of all this ruckus.

She agitatedly paced around the yard and pulled her ID Card from its pocket and dialed up Mistral. She was the first person she wanted to talk to at this point. Aurora peeked inside her home. Quinn was still numb to what had just happened but Goonie was at least sitting in a chair again. The men were all bound up with zip ties and were still unconscious.

“I tied them.” Quinn reported before breaking down to cry, looking up with tear-stained eyes. “I didn’t protect you,” she muttered.

Mistral picked up with a happy tone, “Hi Aurora! I didn’t expect you to call me so soon.” She chuckled.

Aurora looked at the thugs and hauled the fourth next to the other three and leaned down. She saw there were extra zip ties and used them to similarly bind this thug.

Aurora coughed before responding, “I wasn’t going to be a bother, needy or wanty… always nagging, but I need some super advice, Mistral. Four guys followed my mom home tonight to steal from and rape us for some random difference they had. When they kicked the door in, I thought it had something to do with me. I had to protect my family regardless. I transformed and that’s where things got really messed up. Mom got shot. I managed to heal her somehow… mostly… but there goes my secret identity already, maybe.” Aurora was forcing her voice to remain somewhat normal with every fiber of her being.

“Oh no, are you okay?” Mistral asked. “You’re not hurt, are you? Maybe call in Andromeda. She’s a psychic. Dragonmage, he might be able to cast a spell. Do you trust your Detective friend? Maybe, he’ll let you question them. Maybe they didn’t catch anything? When you transform, there’s a blinding flash of light. If what you said was right, they weren’t looking for you so they might not even realize you transformed and think Aurora just appeared in time to rescue them.”

Aurora nodded and cried softly as she explained everything exactly as she remembered how things played out. She took a moment to pause and comfortingly rub Quinn’s shoulder, hugging her lightly and then moved over to squeeze her Mom’s hand.

“It sounds like things happened so fast they probably don’t know what happened based on the fourth man’s reaction,” Mistral said but paused when a beep came through on her side. “Ah, shit. Someone needs help. I’d say question them and if need be, contact Dragonmage or Andromeda. She’s a fellow magic-type heroine like us, but Dragonmage is a full member so you can probably get a hold of him more easily than her. I’ll call you back in a moment.” She cut the call.

Leona couldn’t help introspect that there were dire consequences when you act without thinking. Sometimes the thing you had to do in a given situation wasn’t what felt right. One never knew the price they would have to pay.