Cherreads

Chapter 30 - The day after that, I had a day off. Technically

The day after that, I had a day off. Technically, all my days were days off, since most of my work was at night, but Amos had decided he was going to just go fishing and invited me to join him. So I went, taking along a good friend.

"Ah, kid, this is the life," Kalini chugged a beer, leaning back on his chair. "Nothing but the ocean, the sun, and all the beer that money can buy!"

The three of us were on Amos' boat, sitting on some beat up old chairs with fishing rods at the ready, floating just off the coast of Oahu. It was a nice sunny day, the weather was warm but not overbearing, and our drinks were cold.

"And it's GOOD beer!" Amos chuckled, chugging his own bottle. "German, dark, and as stout as my wife. Maika`i loa," he looked over at me. "You actually going to drink with us, kid, or just keep enjoying your dainty cups of pussy juice?"

I looked over at my martial arts teacher, then at my non-alcoholic malt beverage, before shaking my head. "I'm good, teach. Just enjoying the sun."

A bite came to Kalini's line. He whooped, moving quickly to begin reeling her in. "Ohhhh, I got it! I got it! Yes!"

He pulled, hard cheering at the bright flash of silver! Then he fell mentally. "Awww…"

A fish about the size of my hand wiggled excitedly at the end of the line.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Amos laughed, long and hard at the sight of the tiny specimen at the end of the line. "Oh god, the look on your face! At least it's longer than your pecker! HAHAHA!"

"You are the worst person I've ever met," Kalini grumbled, pulling the tiny thing off the line and tossing it back. "It felt bigger!"

"That's what she said!" Amos said proudly.

I felt a tug on my own line. I started pulling, taking my time with it.

"Oh, here it goes!" Amos laughed, watching me work. "Hope whatever you get is worth a damn."

"I hope it isn't," Kalini mumbled.

"You're a sore loser, aren't you?" I asked Kalini with a grin.

"I am dammit!" he clenched his fist, glaring. "Come on, come on, come on…"

I pulled the fish out of the water. My arms shook. I staggered briefly, then finished pulling, getting it into the boat. The three of us stared down at it.

"...You cheating bastard," Kalini said, shocked.

"Damn!" Amos whispered. "That is a big fucker!"

A four-foot long blue marlin wiggled in place, staring up at us. I guess he was as surprised as Kalini and Amos were.

"What can I say, I have a knack for this," I said with a wink at Kalini. Behind me, while Amos wasn't looking, I knew Mudkip was popping up to give Kalini a wave as he bounced in the ocean.

"You…" Kalini pointed at me, glaring harshly. "Ghhhhh."

All in all, it was a good fishing trip. I wondered how everyone else was doing while I was hanging with my friend and my teacher though.

Sam Mokoa

Sam sat in a conference room, staring at the four cork boards in front of him. "...Okay. Let's figure this out."

He walked over to the board of the far left. The papers on that board were old. Some were yellowed. Photos from all over Hawaii, maps, names. At the top, two words rested. Silicon Dragons.

In a box under the board, more rested within. Arrests, crimes, wins and losses. He eyed one of the names on the board. Lady Dragon. The unknown. The myth. His worst enemy.

He glared at it. Then he moved on.

The next board was different from the first. Every paper there was brand new, pristine. At the top, the words Kahu Kiaʻi rested. Photographs of him in action were all across the board, along with a list of his appearances. He'd been active recently, all across the islands. The kid was fighting almost everyday. Not just against the Silicon Dragons, but also regular day to day criminals.

Sam scowled, looking at the next board. That one was labeled Pokemon? The weird animal creatures that followed him around were the most dangerous thing about him. Super Strength, durability, various energy projectiles, control over the elements. Sam had taken care over long hours to try and figure out the abilities of each. It was a tougher task than one would think. Kahu's own abilities were simple. Durable, strong, and slowly getting more skilled in martial arts, something Sam was using to try and track any practitioners of Lua who might be training him.

But his Pokemon? They were a smorgasbord of abilities. Five of the creatures, with overlap in their powers as well as things specific to them. He had them listed out now.

Mako was the one he knew the most about. An aquatic creature with enhanced strength, speed, durability, hydrokinesis as a primary long range power, some form of geokinesis that Sam had yet to figure out, and cryokinesis. That alone was an example of how ridiculous these creatures were.

He also had a suspicion that one of the creatures, or perhaps an unseen one, could teleport. That would explain how fast Kahu managed to travel across the islands.

That said… there was yet another fly in the ointment.

He looked at the last board. Blurry photos rested across it. A picture of destroyed rooms and broken objects, another from an old security cam that caught the action. A tall dark figure was ignoring the baseball bat that had shattered on his head as he was stomping down on the crotch of a female gangbanger. And one very clear picture.

He'd been caught on a cell phone camera. Apparently one of the Silicon Dragons had managed to get the bright idea that if they caught a photo of the vigilante, they could send it to their bosses. It hadn't worked, but it did give them a hell of a clear picture of him.

Namely, it told them two things. First, that he WASN'T Kahu. He was larger all around, taller and more muscular. And his mask wasn't the original painted hockey mask Kahu had worn, nor the recent and more angular mask he'd taken to wearing with the same half-red half-white paint.

Instead his mask was painted a bright overbearing yellow, with blood spattered across the surface of it. A crooked pale smile of wicked sharp teeth ran along the bottom half of the mask, a disturbing facsimile of a happy grin.

The second vigilante. One who had been travelling around beating people until their bones and bodies were broken. They lived. Even recovered in some cases. But the damage was immense.

And then there was the way he acted. Like an absolute lunatic. He never spoke to his victims, but those who talked mentioned a voice from a device he carried that would speak for him, using either a synthetic woman's voice or lines recorded from movies, games, and TV. Sam hadn't heard back from the shrinks, but based on the lines alone he would have pegged the guy as a looney.

Nothing like this had popped up in Sam's day. Not until Kahu. There had been groups of people ready to fight back. Cops, gangsters, and citizens. But nothing like the concentrated effort he was seeing in these guys.

He'd been working under the possibility this new vigilante was just Kahu with a new mask. But now, with a confirmed difference of identity, the other officers had given him a dumb superhero name. It made Sam sick.

Smiley. "Fucking Smiley. Like he's a cartoon character," Sam ripped the name off the board, crumbling it up and tossing it aside. "Am I the only cop who takes his job seriously in this town?"

Taking solace in the short pleasure destroying that paper gave him, he crossed his arms, glaring.

The Dragons. Kahu. Pokemon. Smiley. There was a lot. He needed help. He needed like minds. Tech. Maybe something of… another nature.

He'd refused to do something like it before. Getting that sort of help would have led to the Silicon Dragons to raise the stakes in turn. But right now, they already were raising the stakes. Over the last week, reports of Silicon Dragons carrying powered armor had begun to arise. That was just the start.

If he had a chance to take down the Dragons and Vigilantes plaguing him, he'd need to step up.

Sam loosened his tie and left the room, scowling. He entered his office, lifting up the phone and carefully putting in a number and extension he barely remembered. Time to call some old friends.

Lady Dragon

In a cargo ship off the coast of Maui

"YAAAAAAAGH!"

Electricity ran across flesh. Three twitching bodies, sitting in chairs, flailed and screamed as the volts ran through them. After a few seconds, a switch was flicked. They stopped twitching. One of the men sobbed. Another had passed out. The last stared listlessly.

Lady Dragon slowly strode forward. She was wearing a silk green dress, her hair done up high, lips painted green. She wouldn't have looked out of place at a high roller event, such as a fashion show or movie premiere. Instead, she stood on emerald high heels in a wet and cold room, pressing a manicured fingernail to her lips as she looked at the three men being tortured. She stepped carefully away from a pool of urine one of the men had released.

"Gentlemen. I'm torn, to be honest," she sighed, her other hand going to her hips. "It's a conundrum that I face. Do I allow you to live? That has merit. You can spread word of my wishes for our organization, knowing all the well that my eye is on you. But then, killing you would do much the same for me. And it would remove three thorns in my side. Hmm…"

"...bitch," one of the men spat out.

"Now, that is a point in the favor of the latter option," she said, unfussed. "Really. I do not mind experimentation. Innovation. But if you kill someone, I require it to be for a purpose. If you torture, maim, murder, I only allow it if it benefits us. If life is currency, then it must be spent frugally. And yet, according to what my people in the force tell me, it seems you killed for… nothing."

She shook her head, sighing. "I am not a good person. I have long made peace with that. Honorable, yes. But not good. Despite that, what I saw in those reports…" she laughed. "My god, what useless, absolute waste! If Kahu hadn't revealed your actions… And now, I am in the odd position of needing to thank my enemy. Which, in all honesty, is not the worst part of this, but still not to my taste."

Lady Dragon nodded to a man behind. He strolled over to the switch on the wall. "I've decided to kill you. Your research, what little you did when you weren't playing out your sadistic games, will have some benefit to my scientist. But I cannot allow men who have besmirched my organization as you have further spreading your influence. I'll need to pull back any of the benefits your families were getting as well. What a mess…"

The switch was flicked, and the men began to shake. Smoke started to rise from their bodies. Lady Dragon ignored them, instead speaking to herself. "Still. Something good came of this. We know much more about Kahu's capabilities. At least the cameras within the facility worked somewhat."

She left the room, the man who had flicked the switch for her following subserviently. "His power, and those of his followers, is formidable… but not impossible to compensate for. I believe I may have to see them for myself."

At that, the man following blinked in surprise. "My Lady? You're going out into the field?"

"Yes, I believe I will. Not just yet. But I do wish to test him for myself," she smiled just a bit. "First, all operations will need a thorough clean-up. I want nothing like that," she spat like a curse. "Happening again. I'll be taking full control of the Silicon Dragons."

"My Lady!?" the man asked, shocked. "I-I thought-"

"It is done," she said with some satisfaction in her voice. "If Kahu Kiaʻi will rise against us, then I will be there to watch him every step of the way. I must admit… I'm rather excited to see what sort of fight he brings. In some ways, that is the best part of all this. With Kahu's continued attacks, I finally have an excuse to begin moving."

She suddenly stopped, thoughtful. "I wonder… what will Sam think?"

Grace Balin

When Giovanni said he would hire Grace as his scientist, she'd expected a few things. Contracts to sign. Lawyers maybe. Maybe an orientation.

She was not expecting a giant beach party with reporters gathered. She was behind a cloth just behind the stage, watching as her future boss spoke to a crowd of people all underneath the canvas tent set up for the occasion.

"-our newest employee, Grace Balin!" Giovanni said proudly. He stood on stage in casual shorts and a button up shirt, somehow still looking just as debonair as he always did. "Come on up here, Ms. Balin!"

"...I hate him," Grace sighed. She came out from the cloth tent, knowing what was coming. Someone gasped in the crowd. Another person, a woman, screamed. Giovanni gestured to her, smiling just a bit. After some hesitation, she walked forward. On the advice of Roxy, she was wearing a purple dress that she felt somewhat ridiculous in, and stumbled a bit as she joined Giovanni.

"Now, I know. Her appearance may be shocking to some. But her story is one I think we can all empathize with. A dedicated scientist, a woman of focus and drive, working in a laboratory in the Maui Ocean Center."

For a moment, Grace was glad that Roxy had walked her through all the legal hoops her sudden disappearance had caused. This whole thing was going to be troublesome enough as it was without having to go through all the legality that was coming her way.

"Then, one day, she found herself under the eye of the Silicon Dragons," Giovanni said, really playing it up as cameras continued to flash. "They tried to force her to use her serum to create weapons. A serum she made to cure paralysis, that they would only use to cause death and destruction!" Giovanni snapped his hand to her. "So she made the only sacrifice she could! She took the serum herself, removing it from their hands. And her reward was to be changed forever…"

Giovanni paused for a moment. Grace felt so awkward, but the crowd seemed to be eating it up. "So because of the Silicon Dragons, she was turned into this. Because the police are too cowardly to put a stop to them, because the local government refuses to step up, the Dragons are allowed to operate with impunity! To attack those simply trying to help humanity!"

He chuckled. "Well, I see great value in Grace's research. Because it worked!"

Behind them, a projector snapped on. Grace didn't look at it. But she knew what it showed. A picture of herself as she was. Tiny, blonde… and wheelchair bound. A buzz of sound from the audience.

"That is right. This young woman, now walking, was once paralyzed from the hips down," Giovanni declared. "And she will continue the research that healed her at Rocket Unlimited! We'll be working on the side effects of course," Giovanni added with a little smirk. "But I imagine I don't have to tell you why perfecting the serum is so important?"

No, he didn't. People started shouting out questions, flashing their cameras. Grace's eyes had to fight to stay open. Giovanni had warned her about that, said that if she squinted at the bright lights she would look very predatory.

"You there," Giovanni pointed at the person in question.

"Jayne Delare, with CNN Business," the reporter said. "Giovanni, are you worried about the consequences of directly challenging the Silicon Dragons like this? They've been known to target companies and businesses that attack their reputation."

"I'm already a target," Giovanni said with a smirk. "My company's shipments and facilities have had to update their security measures dozens of times to stop them from stealing our products. Numerous times, life saving medication has been stolen from local hospitals to be used to heal criminals," his amusement was gone. For a moment, just a moment… Grace was certain there was real anger in his eyes. Rage she hadn't expected.

"If helping an innocent woman leads them to believe that I might be an enemy of theirs, then let me clear up that misconception. I am an enemy of theirs. Make of that what you will."

A little chill ran up her spine at that. That… wasn't the plan. He wasn't supposed to just out and out challenge the Silicon Dragons!?

But somehow, it also seemed to fit him. As much as they spoke about working in secret, Giovanni seemed more… well, more like Kahu, as much as they might have hated that comparison. Both had an air of… well, leading from the front. Technically, Kahu could have stood back from every fight he had been in. Grace had thought about that a few times. With Alakazam to connect him to his Pokemon, Kahu didn't need to be at a fight to guide his Pokemon. But he never did. He might delegate certain tasks. But if there was a fight, he was somewhere in the thick of it.

As Grace was thinking on that, another reporter spoke up. He was a thin man, with a sparse mustache and dark tan skin. "Giovanni. Goji Ditan, NBC Hawaii. Speaking of criminals, Floyd Lawton better known as Deadshot has been seen working as a bodyguard for you. Including at this event," Grace looked to her left. If the aforementioned man had heard his name, he wasn't acting like it. He continued to watch the crowd, eyeing everyone and everything.

"Care to comment on hiring a known killer and mercenary to work so closely by your side even as you continue to bash the Silicon Dragons?" the thin man asked, a mic lifted high.

Giovanni didn't even flinch, nor look towards Floyd as people in the crowd began to stare at him. He only chuckled. "Well done on your research, Mr. Ditan. It's nice to see a reporter do some serious investigation for once. Yes, I did hire Mr. Lawton to become my bodyguard. I believe in hiring my employees based on their skillset. Mrs. Balin's scientific brilliance, Mr. Lawton's experience and skill in the art of combat. I found them valuable, for obvious reasons."

"No matter his skillset, he's still-"

"No, he isn't," Giovanni snapped. "Floyd Lawton paid his dues. I found the idea of a man of his ability struggling to find legitimate work because of a criminal record to be wasteful and stupid. He has done good work for me and has become a valued member of my organization. And in truth, the idea of a criminal record making anyone incapable of working a legitimate job is foolishness to the extreme. Redemption is something we can all believe in after all."

Giovanni continued before the reporter could get another word in. "Now, does anyone have any questions for Mrs. Balin?"

Grace winced, feeling eyes shift onto her. That was when the flood of questions began.

"What does it feel like being a whale!?"

"Were you really paralyzed before!?"

"Do you still eat the same foods!?"

Grace stepped forward and tried her best to weather the storm.

After Grace's new nightmare was done, everyone broke up to enjoy the food and drinks that Giovanni had set up. The man seemed to be in his element, speaking to a group that had surrounded him. Reporters, a couple of rich businessmen, women, and their spouses, and some people who had walked over, all listening carefully as he spoke to them about something Grace couldn't hear.

On the other hand, Grace was on her own. Not because people weren't interested in her. She could see them taking pictures, whispering about her. But that didn't mean they weren't afraid. At one point, a small girl tried to come over to Grace, only for her parents to pull her back. It was cliche, something Grace had seen a dozen times in movies. Pull back a kid from the scary innocent monster.

It still made a hot pain fill her chest.

Then, someone sat down with her. Grace was so surprised she nearly jumped, and looked at the person who sat with her.

"Wassup," Mahmoud said with a grin.

Grace stared at him, uncomprehending. Then she felt panic fill her, hissing. "What are you doing here?"

"Sitting, technically," he said casually.

"B-But, you're here!" she hissed under her breath. "Shouldn't you be, you know, in hiding or something?"

It was so strange, seeing him like this. In all the time she'd known him, she'd only seen him in casual clothes in the cave. Outside, he was always in that costume of his, with the skull-like mask, long coat, and durable jeans. Here, on a sunny beach, with flip-flops, board shorts, and a t-shirt displaying a pineapple with a thong on with the word 'SLUT" underneath in gaudy pink letters, he looked so out of place to her.

"I have a secret identity, what's the point of it if I can't enjoy being in the identity?" the young brown-skinned man said, his grin softening. "Plus, I wanted to check up on you. You doing okay? What with all this?"

The earlier hot feeling returned, but it wasn't painful anymore. Grace hesitantly nodded. "Yeah… I mean, it's hard, but I expected it."

"So did I, but just because you expect people to be dicks, doesn't mean it isn't annoying when they are," he said, running a hand over his head. "Still. After all the time you've spent underground with me, it must be nice to be on a beach."

That was true. It had been a bit since she'd sat in public like this. Even with everyone staring at her and Hawaii's only superhero, she was happy to enjoy the sea breeze across her skin, the warmth of the sun on her skin. All she needed was a nice swim and everything would be perfect. If only it could always be like this…

"It will be," Mahmoud said. Grace jumped startled. Had he read her mind with Alakazam's help? He smiled. "Sorry. I could read it on your face. But yeah. People are going to be awkward around you. Some will be dicks. But now that you've gone public, and we'll be looking after you, you can go where you like. Even get a nice apartment of your own if you want."

She thought about that. "Somehow, I don't think things will be that easy."

He winced. "Uh… yeah, maybe. But things will get better. I promise, okay?"

Grace smiled. For some reason she could believe him. Even as awkward as he was sometimes, the fact he was trying did help. "Thanks."

"Um, ma'am?" Grace and Mahmoud turned to see a young woman standing there nervously. She flinched, but stood her ground, a cameraman behind her. "Can I ask you some questions about your… well, about everything to be honest?"

Grace nodded, rising up. Mahmoud stepped away, and Grace readied herself for another round of questions, feeling much better than she had for the last one.

Author's Note: Next chapter, some more of Sam and Lady Dragon, as well as the intro of a long forgotten DC Comics character.

More Chapters