The Dork Knight

[Stern]

Stern was walking down McGreevey Avenue in the middle of the night, wondering what he was doing there in the first place. Not exactly a comforting street at night, he was trying to reach a friend to drive him home.

"Told him not to drive his car to go drinking by himself. Great idiot he is."

Granted, he had only been walking a block (the bus form the university ran mercifully late), but still, his achluophobia was kicking in despite his glow.

Suddenly a blue car screamed past him followed by a police siren. "Good God! Wait, is that Steve's car?"

Stern of course only saw the color. It was in fact not Steve's car, but Stern ran after it anyway. "Steve, if you're driving drunk, I'll kill you. I don't care if I get branded as a crazed mutant."

[Batdude]

Marty picked up speed, actively pinging the suspect cars as he cruised above. Two were obviously different designs than the Caprice. The other two were close, but Marty was eventually able to sort them out. Finally, he was on the tail of the Caprice, and closed the distance, just as the car took a sudden U-turn and exited across traffic.

"They're gonna miss him."

Marty mumbled to himself as he banked sharply. He tried to stay close, but not too close. There were enough street lights that would partially illuminate a flying man-bat to any passers-by, so he had to be careful with that.

[Stern]

Stern quickly found he couldn't keep up on foot. Stern really didn't want to use the alleyways, as they were darker than the street itself, but he really needed to catch up to that car.

"The things I do for friend's friends."

Stern figured the best way to cut off the car would be to go through the alleyway. Lucky for him, it was a clear one. Stern sprinted through the alleyway and emerged at the next street in time to see the car fly by him again.

"What is he thining?"

[Batdude]

Marty flapped hard and picked up altitude to get a good vantage. He perched at the top of a building, and removed one of his pre-paid cell phones, pressing 9-1-1 with a clawed finger. With the phone on speaker, he caught air again, speeding up to catch his target.

"I want to report on the hit and run on McGreevey. I'm following the car involved, and it's going westbound on Sigmand."

"Sir, thank you for your input. Please pull over and stay out of danger, the police are on their way."

Marty shook his head.

"I'm staying on this guy. He could get away. I'll keep the line open if anything happens."

[Stern]

Stern decided that it was time for Steve to stop. The blue car sped past him yet again, turning a corner and continuing down the new street.

"Great."

The college student started running through alleyways again, using his track and field athletics to hop garbage cans and fences. Who would have known hurdles and the high jump would come in so handy? Not to mention the hundred meter dash and the cross country training.

Stern put on a full sprint and tried to second guess Steve. Would he switch back down the perpendicular street?

Alas, Stern was not so lucky. At this rate he would lose the car. He needed to do something fast.

Stern placed the fingertips of his right hand into a point and opened his left hand wide. Two beams of light shot from his hands. The right one was focused, and aimed at the blue car's tires. The left one was wider, but stern pointed it at the general area of the driver's rearview mirror. Then he upped the wattage.

"Steve, pull over," he whispered.

[Batdude]

"Oh no."

The rotor blades were easy to hear from miles off, but it was clear they were vectoring onto his location, and likely going after the blue Caprice. Marty accelerated, knowing that he'd have to get in and get out soon to avoid having to answer some embarassing questions from the cops.

"What's wrong sir?"

Oh yeah, the dispatcher.

"N- nothing." Marty replied, a needing a little extra breath to maintain his airspeed.

"Can you let the police know that the car they're after is going to be marked with yellow paint?"

"Yellow paint? Who is this?"

"Just let them know, okay!"

Marty passed the Caprice, looking for a good perch where he might be able to mark the car.

[Stern]

Stern found it harder than he first reckoned to keep the beams of light bright while he ran after the car. It took way more concentration than he first figured. But something seemd to be going on. The car was swerving a bit here and there, trying to get the light out of the mirror. The rear tired didn't look to be suffering too much.

Stern was quickly running out of breath. The running and the two beams were a bit much for him to maintain.

Now or never.

Stern stopped where he was and placed his hands together, focusing his whole self into one concentrated pinpoint of intense light. For a few intense moments nothing happened to the tire. Then it seemd to sag. Stern grinned apparently the tire was losing integrity.

He held off for a moment and tried to catch up as best he could to get another solid lock on the car.

"I'm sure if I were closer, it would work better."

[Batdude]

"Overpass!"

This was risky. To get close enough for a good marker shot, he'd have to get uncomfortably close to lights that might give him away. He glided to the spot, then suddenly pitched down and crouched against the overpass's concrete rim.

Quick to fold his wings out and not cause a scene, Marty shouldered the paintball marker, and lined up the appraoching Celica.

And then, all Hell broke loose, as one driver on the road below likely saw a dark-clad figure hoisting what looked to be a gun at traffic. He hit the brakes, sending his car into an uncontrolled skid which crashed into the next lane, starting a multiple-car pileup.

"Oh crap...oh crap...oh crap..." Marty muttered near hyperventilation.

"Are you okay? That sounded like a car crash!"

Marty very quickly turned the phone off, and buried his face in his hands.

[Stern]

Stern reached the overpass in time to watch the blue car clear it. The rear tire caved of its own accord, wrecking the thing into a parked car. The police stopped by it and climbed out, guns drawn. No one noticed the faintly glowing mutant that had been the source of light for the crash.

Oh crap..oh crap...of crap...

Where was that coming from? Someone hurt or scared? Stern needed to check on Steve, but also didn't want to get into the middle of police work. So he decided to look into the frightened person.

His ambient glow illuminated a clawed foot poking out from under the concrete barrier keeping cars from plummeting into the other road. It caused him more curiosity than surprise, but still, he was careful about approaching it.

"Everything ok?"

Stern was well aware of how light could frighten animals and people who tried to hide in the dark. Stern had his hunches about the kind of being he would find in the shadows, but he decided to see what the light would reveal. Man, he hated the dark.

"Are you sure everything is fine?"

[Batdude]

"Holy - !"

Marty lurched from the sudden glowing intruder. Half out of shock, and half out of an innate desire to get the heck out of dodge after this little debacle.
He stumbled and fell off the overpass, fortunately quick enough to spread his wings that he caught some air, and glided incredibly uncomfortably over the heads of both the hit & run guy as well as the police who were swarming him.

"That thing's got a gun!"

The big wings flapped slow, and Marty's muscles screamed to give him some lift.

[Stern]

Stern rolled out his shoulders and massaged a small kink in his neck. "Well, that was no good."

At least Stern knew what he was dealing with. A mutant that had one of the more radical mutations. Stern needed to do something to keep the officers from switching targets.

"Hey! That man in the blue car nearly ran me over!"

Stern ran up into the light of the nearby streetlamp. "Officers! He's going to get away!"

Stern pointed to the man climbing out of the car. It was not Steve, nor was the car Steve's. Perfect.

The officers took their guns out of the air and returned them to the wild driver.

"What were you two looking at? Shadows in the dark?"

The officers looked at each other quizzically for a moment or two, then said, "Stand back, sir. We'll handle this. We're sorry this man put you in danger. We have the situation well in hand."

Stern thanked the officers and walked off down the street as non-chalantly as he could towards the surprised and apparently scared mutant. There had to be a way to get to a nearby roof.

Most of the rooves were above the lamplights. Granted, some of them had their own lighting fixtures, but a person could stand in the center of any given roof and remain hidden. The person probably went there.

[Batdude]

Marty had scarcely managed to flee the glowing guy and the police before he found himself in a new tight spot.

He had forgot about the helicopter, which was now angrily chopping the air around the scene. Night turned to instant daylight, and Marty realized that they had trained their lights on him.

"Oh man this really sucks."

They were still at a distance, but gaining. Even with his bad eyes, the light from the spotter was incredibly painful. Fortunately, he didn't need to keep his eyes open to work, so he closed them.

Where to go...where to go.

[Stern]

Stern looked up and noticed the bat mutant in the spotlights of a police helicopter. "What to do...What to do?"

Stern held his hands out like he was shouldering a rifle. His hair turned a bright red as he strained out the the other colors in the visible spectrum and trained a finger on the cockpit of the aircraft.

"Man, I hope this works."

A tight beam of red light lanced out of his finger and danced across the canopy. It bounced around between the pilot and co-pilot, then moved towards the vital parts of the aircraft--the rotors and the fuselage.

The chopper turned in an evasive maneuver, bringing its spotlight around to its new facing.

Feeling good about his achievement, Stern relaxed his focus so his light grew white again. Then he ran back to the service ladder and climbed down to the street, where he shone huge searchlights in the sky in an opposite direction of the strange mutant. Maybe the chopper would fly off in that direction to investigate.

[Batdude]

Marty felt buffeted in mid-air as the rotor wash changed direction. The helicopter was getting spooked by something, and the demi-bat hadn't a clue what that was about. A second spotlight came up out of nowhere, playing across the cityscape, and Marty used the distraction to find a quick perch, on the maintenance ladder of a billboard, tucked out of sight from oncoming traffic.

Breathing heavily, Marty folded up his wings, and gave a few quick hypersonic chirps to look for danger. He was so worked up, all he could think about was having a smoke to keep his nerves from overwhelming him.

[Stern]

Satisfied that the chopper was off the mutant's back, Stern took a moment to apprise his surroundings. His conclusion was fast and decisive. He was hopelessly and irrevocably lost.

He climbed back up to the roof of the building he had just come from and peered out over the cityscape. The clocktower and some of the other buildings close by ESU were very prominent against the night sky--especially the clockface, which lit up at night.

Stern climbed back down and made his way towards the clocktower. It was several blocks away, but most likely no more than a mile or two away. Stern was just glad he didn't have a lot to do tomorrow. He needed the sleep soon.

By now the police had taken away the wild driver. After what happened to him, he was feeling pretty unsympathetic towards Steve. He'd just find his own way home.

About that time, Stern's cell phone beeped at him. It was Steve. Apparently he had hooked up with some random woman at the bar and was going home with her.

"Whatever. We'll see if you still appreciate that decision come morning."

The streets were quiet. Usually empty streets were a comfort to Stern at night, but his achluophobia was kicking in. He walked quickly and with purpose, not bothering to glance around him or give any passersby the idea that he was bothered.

Stern's glow brightened to give him a somewhat broader radius of visibilty.

[Batdude]

There he was again, that glowing guy!

Even with his terrible eyesight, Marty could tell a light source that big. Plus, he could still "see" through sound, and the glowy thing walking about on the street was definitely person-shaped. Another mutant?

Marty decided that he'd let the human spotliight stroll by, and he'd catch air after he cleared out. That guy nearly got him arrested and/or killed.

"Agh"

Marty winced, making a pained sound a bit too audibly as he shifted his weight. His left foot really hurt. He squeezed his toes together and pain aside, it felt like he'd stepped in something warm and sticky.

Only he knew that he didn't. It was pretty obvious what had happened.

[Stern]

Agh

Stern looked up at the billboard where the sound came from. There was apparently nothing there. Stern stopped a moment and shone some light around the edge of the billboard.

"Something going on? Anyone up there?"

The words came out quicker than Stern was comfortable. It was dark, the streets were empty, and like a fool he was offering to help someone that might be lying in wait to mug him.

Anti-mutant people can be anywhere, and even if no one can sneak up on you, the thought of someone stabbing your back without anyone around to witness it was not pleasing. Stil, Stern figured by now he'd just have to take his chances.

"Hello?"

[Batdude]

Damn

Marty couldn't break for it with lightbulb keeping his eyes on the billboard, and the guy had already proven to be incurably curious. Marty could risk climbing between the two sides of the board to hide even better, but he didn't want to think about having to use his legs and his foot was starting to throb so hard he could hear it.

This was stupid, he at last thought. Maybe plain candid talk would work.

"Go away."

[Stern]

Stern raised an eyebrow. "You're the flying mutant right? Looks like a bat? Good to know you got away from that chopper. I didn't know if my plan would work. You ok?"

Stern's first impulse was to try to get to the roof, but he decided to stay where he was. No need to get the stranger riled up.

[Batdude]

"I wouldn't have had to get away from that chopper if you didn't freak me out into the open."

Marty winced as he shifted his weight again, trying to keep the throbbing down.

"You gonna narc on me? I realize I'm asking a talking mag-lite, but right now I'm just asking for a little subtlety."