Another Late Night...

"Hurry the fuck up!”  A large, balding crook wearing a sloppy looking tracksuit would yell out at a group of men hauling boxes from a small boat into a boxtruck.  “The boss wants this shipment in his warehouse by daylight!  If he’s disappointed it’ll be my ass, that means it’ll be your asses too!”  The goons hustled to get the boxes loaded up, not wanting to piss off who they were working for.  The boxes themselves were fortified and locked up tight, probably something that shouldn’t be loaded into the city.

The late night smuggling run was interrupted with what all the criminals of New York don’t wish to see while on the job; a bright flash of purple light.  “Shit!”  The group leader called out as he suddenly sees a black-clad figure roundhouse kicking a crook across the face, causing him to drop his package.  The balding man quickly pulled out an uzi and began to fire at the attacker, who quickly left his view in a flash, a purple trail of light following the woman to her next target.  This target would cry out in pain as he felt a reinforced fist smash into the side of his head, making him crumple over into the river.  One by one, the balding criminal’s men were being taken out with brutal strikes just before he could react and fire at the ambusher before she was suddenly on him.  He’d lift his gun and prepare to fire, but was unable to as the attacker quickly rushed at him with her hand glowing bright like a lightsaber and sliced through his firearm before spinning around and kicking him hard in the center of his chest, sending him flying backward into a pile of those boxes.

“Agh… You Neon bitch!  You have any idea who I work for!?  Osiris is going to tie you up and make you his little girlfriend!  You fucked up big ti~ AGH!”  He’d feel a fist to his jaw before he could finish that sentence, probably breaking the bone and some teeth along with knocking him unconscious.  Neon frowned as she looks down at him, not enjoying what he had to say about his bos.  Osiris was an egomaniac and a psychopath, his name alone shows that he believes himself to be the king of the underworld, even if it was just metaphorical.  But what made the man dangerous was his influence; the guy was rich, very rich, rich enough to pay anyone he wants to get off his case.  Well, anyone but Neon.

The Speedster would turn to the boxes and use her energy blade ability to slice one open.  “..Fucker.. Just what I thought..” The box would be full of weapon parts.  But not parts for normal ballistic weapons.  No, these were parts for highly advanced, highly illegal energy weapons.  A riot-tank, let alone a cop’s ballistic vest, couldn’t stop a round from one of these railguns.  If criminals on the streets got their hands on this kind of firepower, it’d be a war the law couldn’t win.  Neon couldn’t leave these boxes for the cops either, not when they frequently “lose” things from their evidence lock up.  She’d begin to slice through and destroy every box she could find, dumping the power cells into the river as well to make sure no one could take hold of them.

Darren loved to run. Like absolutely loved in. In fact it was probably one of the only things in this world he loved doing about as much as swordplay/sword fighting. Well okay that wasn't entirely true, he loved to eat, he loved to talk, he loved to woa-what was that?! Speeding to a halt a sonic boom following in his wake and wind whipping around at the sudden loss of movement from the boy blunder as he kneeled down to pick up the very shiny coin that was currently on the ground. Satisfied in his find he placed the quarter in one of the many pockets on his book bag that wasn't housing his costume or sword and was about to continue his run to God only knows where when something else caught his attention.

This time however the object of his attention was not something shiny, and no it absolutely wasn't the butterfly floating off to the side over there. Okay, that wasn't entirely true as it was taking up some of his attention now that it had been brought to his attention but it wasn't what caught his attention originally. That belonged to the gun shots that seemingly came from close by. He wasn't entirely sure where they were coming from but he had a general direction and honestly that was all he needed. At his speed he could definitely get to the source before everything went sour. Probably. Hopefully. With that thought the world around him slowed down seemingly to a stop as he took of at super sonic speeds towards the gun shots. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do tonight but being a hero was also a good option!

A few moments later and after a couple of obviously wrong stops the fastest kid alive arrived at what he believed was the scene of the gun shots, dressed in full hero costume. He believed it was the scene of the 'crime' mostly due to the fact that there were a bunch unconscious guys who had guns around them, and they themselves were surrounded by boxes that seemingly were coming off of the boat nearby. To do what with them though Darren didn't know and would probably never know. Why one may ask themselves, well the answer was quite simple really. It was because there was something that caught his attention, as if that wasn't a surprise. This of course happened to be the person in the skin tight black biker outfit with purple stripes on the sides.

Making his way over to said person Darren scratched the back of his head, and watched questioningly for about two or three seconds; which for him is a very long time. Honestly. He tried to just figure out what it is she was doing but to him it just looked like she was destroying a bunch of scrap metal, fancy scrap metal sure but still just scrap metal. Honestly he didn't see what exactly all the fuss was about or why the unconscious people thought they needed to smuggle this stuff into the city. Or why she thought she needed to bash some heads in. "So uh, whatcha doing? I totally get the need to beat people up thing but usually it's because they've done something bad or illegal first. And most of the time they tried to hit me first." Heh, as if. Hitting him was not something you average person could do.

Neon quickly turned around when she heard a voice speak out to her, hand still glowing with a bright purple energy blade.  Where the hell did this guy come from?  She thought to herself as she looked him over, wondering how she didn’t notice him earlier.  “These punks are smuggling weapons that I do not want in the city… They work for a very bad man who I do not want to have these weapons.  The rest I assume you can figure out..” She said coldly as her energy blade was dismissed.

The Speedster stares at the new arrival for a few more moments with her arms crossed before slowly getting herself into a defensive combat stance, “..This is the part when you tell me who the hell you are, and if you’re friend or foe..” She said bluntly, getting herself ready for a fight if he turned out to be an enemy.

Now most people would be listening to what the person, whom they just asked a question, was saying. If it wasn't already obvious enough though Darren Cross was not abnormal person. No, see he was more focused on the fact that she had a glowing energy blade instead of a hand. Like that was totally amazing and he wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed it before. It was just so damn cool. His mind raced with questions, like how did it work, how sharp was it, could she use it to pick things up, or did it only do the stabby stab. He also wondered if his own sword would be able to take a hit from it or would the energy sword just kind of melt through it light saber style. That would be really cool, but bad for his sword so he kind of hopes that didn't happen. If they fought of course.

When the purple energy blade dissipated and was replaced with a normal hand the disappointment was clearly evident in Darren's face. Or would be if it weren't for the hood he was wearing. In the excruciatingly long time it took for her to move around to face him, size him up, and get into a defensive stance Darren had already run countless different scenarios in his head and drummed his fingers against the hilt of his sword about a thousand times. It wasn't that she personally was slow it was just that to him everyone was slow, everyone took forever to do anything. Blah, blah blah, oh wait hold up she was talking again. Cocking his head to the side the boy blunder unsuccessfully attempted to stifle a laugh. Friend or foe? She wanted to fight him? Well she was feisty.

Hands in the air Darren did a sort of half bow all while keeping his eyes on her. "That's a great question isn't it? We don't exactly know each other and just met so I wouldn't say I'm your friend, although we could totally be friends if you want. What do you do for fun? Besides knocking people unconscious and slicing things up with your fancy purple energy blade. Which by the way looked so cool. How does that work? I'm assuming it's some sort of power you have and not an actual energy blade that you created you know scientifically. Unless it is which is even cooler. Wait what were we talking about again?" It was something to do with friends right? The really old tv show that Sean liked? Or was it Force who liked it? He was into old fashioned stuff. Oh! Now he remembers! "I like running, animals, saving people, games, and food. Actually now that I think about it I'm pretty hungry. Want to go get something to eat?" Yeah that's totally what they were talking about. Good job Darren; self high five.

Neon stood there, watching the man in front of him fire off words like a vocal machinegun, shocked at how much he was saying in a single breath.  She almost couldn’t follow his train of thought, which was pretty fucked as it is.  She caught the gist of it, saying that he’s friendly, complimenting her powers, and asking her out to lunch?  Hikari didn’t know if he completely lost his mind or was flirting with her, but it didn’t matter.

“Uhm.. It's just something I can do.  I energize my hand with highly excited particles, and choose what shape I want the plasma jet to take.  In this case..” She lifts her hand up again as it engited into the energy blade again, “It's not technology, but science did create it in a way..” She hoped her answers would hold him over on that subject before she attempted the bit about what she does for fun, “I don’t really think that’s any of your business, considering I don’t know you..”

Neon would tilt her head and look at him when he asked her if she wanted a bite to eat, since again she didn't understand whether he was spouting out random shit or coming onto her. She'd look around at the unconscious goons and the billions of dollars worth of destroyed weaponry before shrugging her shoulders. She was done here, and didn't really have any new leads to follow. "Eh.. fuck it. Sure, why not? I could eat.."

Energy and highly excited particles? Yeah, those words meant absolutely nothing to Darren. He didn’t exactly have the best education in the first place and it didn’t stop that what education he did have stopped at about age 10. All he really got to know was her hand was not just a laser sword but could be laser anything she wanted and she got said powers scientifically. That was pretty cool, way better than how Darren got his powers. Getting struck by magic lightning did not feel good, even if afterwards he did end up becoming an awesome hero. Not that anyone else really seemed to think so, but you know that was okay. As long as he knew he was awesome that’s really all that mattered.

When she pointed out that she didn’t know him his face kind of made that surprised face. You know that one people make with the big o with their mouth and raised eyebrows? Yeah that’s the one his face made, it probably would have looked pretty funny too if she could see said face underneath his hood. “You’re totally right, you don’t know me! Force would be so mad at me. It’s rude not to introduce oneself when you meet them and all that.” Throwing his hand forward to be shook he Australian boy blunder introduced himself “The name’s Swordsmaster, and at times I have been known as Santa Darren but you can just call me Darren.” Sure, he had been given the lecture on secret identities about a hundred times by practically everyone he knew but like come on it’s not like it really mattered.

Plus, she agreed to go get food with him, like you couldn’t eat food with someone and just call them by their superhero name the entire time. Or well, no maybe you could. He was pretty sure you could now that he thought about it, but why would you do that when you could use an actual name? Or a nickname. Darren absolutely loved nicknames. He had one for everyone he knew. Maybe she’d get one too. But first. Food. After the handshake, or lack thereof, Darren turned and took off in a direction with a sonic boom echoing in his wake. He got about maybe a mile away which took about three seconds before he turned around and stopped in front of energy sword lady. “Right. You don’t have super speed do you, or do you? Also, I’m not sure where we are or where good places to eat are. Unless you like hot dogs? Bet I could find a hot dog stand. They’re like everywhere now.” Cue clueless grin.

Neon couldn’t help but stare at the hyperactive boy as he droned on about his secret identity that he just nonchalantly disclosed to her like they were old friends. The boy clearly isn’t all the bright as he seemed to not fully understand the point of an alias. “Uh… Darren.. Right… I’m Neon..” She chose to keep her alias, not knowing the kid enough to share the open sentiment. Its not like she was protecting a family, or any loved ones. She didn’t really have any friends. No, her alias was to keep her enemies from humanizing her, to keep them guessing and afraid.

This was when the kid suddenly zipped out of view, breaking the sound barrier and causing Neon to scream out, “Ffffffuuuuuuuck!!!” She slaps her hands onto the sides of her helmet, where her ears would be and walks around in circles, waiting for the screeching in her ears to go away. He came back soon after and spoke to her, but Neon couldn’t hear a damn thing on an account of her blown eardrums. “What!?” She called out to him, “I can’t hear you! For fuck’s sake! You don’t break the sound barrier near people!” She groaned out, moving around her jaw to help clear her ears from the whining.

Neon, that was a good name. Kind of like neon lights, actually it was a lot like neon lights and totally explained the purple streaks down the side of her costume as well as the fancy vibrating excited molecules sword. Well at least in Darren Cross’ mind it did, and his mind was really not somewhere you wanted to be. Most people generally couldn’t survive in there. Not for long anyway, and if they did somehow find their way trapped in his head they’d get confused and lost and disorganized really quickly. Just like this post that totally didn’t just break the fourth wall. It was also the reason he was very much confused when he saw Neon Lights, needed a better nickname, walking around in circles with her hands on her head and moving her mouth around.

She couldn’t hear? Something about not br-ooh. Right sometimes when he went really fast it created a really big boom that apparently hurt people’s ears if they heard it. Not that he did it on purpose or anything of course! He honestly forgot sometimes that super speed equals big boom, or that other people were slower than he was. Well no, that wasn’t entirely true. He was very used to other people being slower than he was. He just usually didn’t think about the people who were slower than he was, or at all. “Right! Sorry! I forget sometimes, I just really like to move fast. When I’m moving fast and everything else is moving really slow it kind of feels like everything is in focus. Every other time it just kind of feels like nothing is moving fast enough and it makes things really hard to concentrate.” Like for example how one of those knocked out guys was groaning and rolling over onto his stomach.

A quick tilt of Darren’s head and his perception hyper focusing as the world around him seemingly slowed to a stop showed that no the bad guy was not waking up. No, he was just kind of involuntarily moving or maybe he was asleep and having bad dreams. Heh, now that would be weird. Darren kind of wondered what bad guys who were smuggling things into the city dreamed about after having been knocked out by someone else. Probably nothing good. Wait a second. “. . . Sooo are you alright now? Should we just walk to the food place? Where are we going again?” She totally said something and he missed it. Didn’t he?

Neon’s dark purple lips parted again as she opened and closed her jaw a few times, clenching it to attempt to ease the horrible ringing in her ears.  She had to sit down on one of the destroyed weapons creates to just focus on regaining her sense of hearing.  Darren was speaking to her, going on about something.  To Neon it just sounded like, “Mrrh hrrh wrrh nrrh hrrh”, she couldn’t make out a single word.  It doesn’t appear that her ears were damaged permanently as they were rather quickly recovering.  Thankfully, being a speedster also meant healing was obviously faster than normal.  She let out an annoyed sigh and look over to Darren from behind her goggles, the purple tint hiding how pissed she was at him.

Her ears recovered enough for her to finally make out whatever the hell this kid was talking about.  He was asking her if she was alright, and if she wanted to walk to the food place now.  “I’m fine… Darren..  And I never told you where we were going, you blew out my eardrums before I could, remember?”  She let out an irritated huff before standing up, “I know a place.. We can run there…” Neon would suddenly hold out a finger, motioning Darren to wait a minute.  “But!  You stay behind me, and keep it SUB-sonic.  You got that?”  She said with a tone that was like an adult girl telling her little brother what to do.

The black-clad woman slowly walked past him before suddenly vanishing in a flash of bright purple light, leaving a bright purple trail that would show Darren where she had ran to.  The streets of New Work would bare witness to the bright purple light zipping through the streets, weaving between traffic expertly at very high speeds.  In less than a minute she would stop in front of a small japanese restaurant somewhere in East Village and walked inside.  “Mr. Takahura!”  She called out, a rather old Japanese man wearing a white apron and a chef’s hat would turn around and flash Neon a big smile.

“Oh!  Neon-chan!  mata oaidekite ureshii desu!”  He bellowed out in delight, speaking Japanese to her, “Nani o tabetaidesu ka?”  He asked, asking the vigilante what she wanted to eat while putting his hands on the counter.

Neon walked up to the counter and smiled at him, having always been treated well by this man after saving his business from extortion, “Itsumo no, Takahura.”  She responded in fluent Japanese, “Eigo o hanasu, tomodachi ga kuru.” Neon added, asking the man to switch to English because Darren will be showing up.

(I apologize in advance for my Japanese.  I do not know any Japanese, this is all google translate!)

He blew out her eardrums? Oh! Right. The whole sonic boom thing. He really needed to remember that normal people couldn’t move at hypersonic speeds. It wasn’t his fault that they were all so slow, but hey at least she could hear him now. Meaning she was better, or healing, or something. Point is she was totally fine now and wait a second. He had to go how slow? If it meant he got food he was fairly certain he could move really slow. He was pretty sure he would have to anyway to follow her as he wasn’t entirely sure where they were going. Mostly because Neon Lights, still needed a better nickname, hadn’t divulged that information. Just that she knew a place they could go to and for most people that wouldn’t have been enough. They’d have requested a name or location or something; but for Darren? The promise of food was enough.

When she stepped past him and took off in a flash of purple light Darren was momentarily stunned. How could he not be amazed? It looked so cool, like a laser light show. Except it was only one light and when his mind and body jumped into overdrive in preparation for the run he was a tad bit disappointed to see that she hadn’t really turned into a purple streak of light but she still gave off a purple energy source so that was still cool. Darren didn’t do that when he ran. As far as he knew at least, all that happened when he ran was everyone else got really slow. Speaking, or rather thinking, of running he should probably go now. Taking a breath in his eyes flashed grey for a split second as he took off racing after his newfound friend. Making sure not to go too fast and to stay a good bit behind her, no need to make her mad.

After rushing by the slow, but not super slow, moving vehicles and people the lights and sounds all bluring together instead of the seemingly stopped motion he much preferred, the boy blunder arrived in the little restaurant a second or two after Neon. Having stopped outside and then walked in so as not to disturb anything around with the wind that generally kicked up whenever he stopped running suddenly. “Woa! Japanese food?” The speedster grinned “Watashi wa ichido Nihon ni itta koto ga arimasu.” He paused an odd look on his face “Dono yō ni oboeteinai” However it was quickly replaced by his ever impressive boyish grin, his hood from his costume completely off now. “I don’t really know all that much Japanese though.” Despite having just spoken two sentences in it, not that this registered with him of course, “Or what they eat, other than fish. I had a lot of fish while I tried to figure out what I was doing there and how to get back to the States. John wasn’t too happy I ruined his vacation.” Oversharing? Definitely. But he didn’t know that.

((Google Translate is your friend.))

Neon looked back at Darren, who had just arrived, and slowly lifted up her goggles to reveal her brown eyes. Though her mask still covered her eyebrows, cheeks, and the bridge of her nose. Her eyes blinked at him in surprise, having no idea he spoke japanese, even though he said that he’s only been to Japan once. “Right…” She also noticed he took his hood completely off, revealing his identity right off the bat, again. “Mr. Takahura, this is Darren. He’s a speed hero, like me, who doesn’t get the concept of identity concealment…” She looks to the chef and shrugged her shoulders.

“Aaaah… Konichiwa, Darren-san.” Takahura spoke with a very thick japanese accent, “Well, Japan is an island nation and most of our food is gathered through farming and fishing. But we have other, non-fish, dishes.” He chuckled, pointing to a menu that had a bunch of different japanese dishes.

Neon looked over to Darren and pointed at some of the japanese words, “I’m sure you know what Ramen is… Yakitori is skewered chicken…” She reads the menu some more, “Yeah the rest is seafood… I recommend his chicken Ramen, it's the best.. And that’s what I’ll be having.” She gave the Chef a nod, who turned to prepare the dish.

“Well yeah, it’s not like I’m any less super with the hood off.” Was Darren’s immediate response to the identity concealment comment made by Neon Lights. Sure, it wasn’t directed towards him but the comment was about him which totally gave him justification for speaking up on it. Thankfully though his mind wandered enough that he wasn’t focused entirely on that and was able to at least hear when the chef, or Mr. Takahura, was introduced and said something to him. “Hey there Mr. Mr. Takahura it’s nice to meet you!” and it was, because this man was going to give them food. Sure, they’d probably have to pay for it and Darren would find some way to convince Neon Lights to pay for his but the point was that someone was actually going to let super heroes eat at their restaurant. Darren could never get anyone to ever let him eat while he was in costume. Or out of costume for that matter, it was strange.

Before they got to the food though there was of course the deciding what to eat part. Now to anyone actually paying attention they’d be able to tell that when the menu was pointed out and every started to read over it Darren did not. Reading was not one of his favorite things to do, and if it were up to him he’d have probably just ordered one or two or even three of everything. He could probably eat Mr. Takahura out of house and home if given the chance. He’d been kicked out of a couple Golden Corrals and other all you can eat places because they realized just how much he could eat. In the spirit of being nice however he decided that instead of reading the menu and asking for two of everything he’d just get whatever Neon Lights got. SO, when she suggested something he nodded and grinned. “Yeah, I’ll get that too please. Sounds great. So, do you come here often Neon Lights? I mean obviously you must, you’ve got a regular and the Chef knows you pretty well.”

"It's just Neon.. And yeah.." Neon would sit down on a small stool in front of the counter and look over to Darren, who seemed to be thinking at the speed of light; his attention darting between a million different things before returning to the her within a second. "I'm a regular, Right Mr. Takahura? I come here every day at around midnight. This poor guy has his shop open very late into the night so he can pay his kids through school.” The heroine smirked at the chef, who looked at her, nodded his head politely, and shuffled along to the back of his shop to cook the bowls. “Doesn’t speak a word of English, though.” She added with a snicker.

“So, ‘Darren’..” Neon spoke his name in a weird enunciation, probably because she was still shocked that he revealed his identity to quickly; something people in her line of work try to avoid like the plague. “Tell me more about yourself, why you dress like that when you just tell everyone who you are… How you got your speed… what made you want to do the hero thing.. Stuff like that?” The heroine crossed her legs and leant over on the counter to look at him curiously.

“Just Neon? Well that’s a weird name, but hey if that’s your name than who am I to judge, right?” Replied the Australian with ADHD. Speaking of which is why he completely missed whatever it was she said next even though it was probably in response to a question he himself had asked. Why one may ask. The answer is simple. Mr. Takahura shuffled out of view and into the back of the shop. Generally someone simply leaving a room only garnered a little bit of Darren’s erratic attention but the fact that he shuffled was what threw it over the edge. The man moved so strangely! He knew old people were slow and awkward but he had never actually seen one shuffle along like a penguin or something before. Oh! Penguins were awesome. He had been to Antarctica before, after he went to Pittsburg and realized there were no actual penguins in the city. That had been disappointing and ended up with him very cold.

“Yesss?” The boy blunder answered in response to the strange way that Just Neon had called his name, a grin still ever present upon his boyish face. Why does he dress like this when he just tells everyone his identity anyway? Ugh. That question was so boring. “Because heroes wear costumes! They have cool names; and I’m a hero too. Just because I tell people my name is Darren doesn’t mean I’m also not Swordsmaster!” That logic obviously made sense. Good job Darren, self-high-five. As for how he got his powers and why he decided to be a super hero those were both questions he enjoyed answering. “I got my powers when I was struck by magic lighting while training with my sword on top of a hill in Australia. I was training with the sword because I wanted to beat up the gang that hurt my family, and then when I went back to confront them they were getting beat up by a caveman. Thus, I decided I too would become a super hero like the caveman before me and use my powers for good!” The best part about all of this. Absolutely true. “What about you Just Neon? You seriously need a better name, I’ll think of a nickname eventually.”