The Missing Waitress

2 Day's ago...

Hound sat in a red leather booth of a small, 24 hour breakfast dinner, designed like a 50's restaurant. He was still clean shaven, with a proper hair cut, his clothes were clean, and his duffel bag sat beside him. Large bay windows all around, red leather booths lined the walls, the floor was a highly buffed black and white chequered floor panelling. A bar was positioned in the very centre of the restaurant, where the cook prepared the food right in front of the customers.

The waitresses were all dressed in white and yellow, slim waitress dresses complete with white aprons, and white flat sole shoes. The majority of them had their hair tied up in pigtails, a common 50's style that was easy to use at work, and get rid of outside of work. Two men stood behind the bar, one in front of the heated flat top, and one of by the fryer.

Hound sipped the cup of coffee as he sat there, observing the various customers, and employees as they worked. It was 10 p.m. which meant the dinner rush was all gone, but the drunken bums stumbling home from the bar were still partying hard.

A waitress sighed heavily as she slumped into the seat directly in front of Hound. She was blonde, with blue eyes, and rather pretty. She wore a slightly different uniform as everyone else, seeing as she was nearly 3 months pregnant. She only had the slightest bit of a baby bump, but still she wore a loose fitting yellow button up shirt, and a white skirt compared to everyone else.

"Ready for another English lesson?" She asked with a smile.

Hound smiled, "I think my English is nearly perfect now, Jessie, but I would love your company." He spoke with surprising skill, considering just over a month ago, he was the crazy bum who broke into a store, and could barely string five words together. "Though I owe it all to you." Hound had been coming to the dinner every night for the past month, and Jessie had been the one kind enough to help him re-learn English.

She thought he was a German immigrant, who refused to speak German so he could learn English faster, it was a lot simpler than trying to explain he spent seven years in solitude with out saying a single word to anyone.

"How is the baby?" Hound asked politely, before sipping his coffee.

"Doctor says it's a boy, and he has a strong, healthy heart beat." She beamed proudly.

"Did you ever find the father?" He tactlessly asked.

She frowned, "I haven't looked. It was a stupid one night stand. I don't remember anything past the guy buying me a drink. I don't care if I ever meet him." Jessie had, had this conversation at least a dozen times a week since she found out she was pregnant, and she was getting tired of it. "I will be just fine on my own."

"I didn't mean... I'm sorry." Hound frowned a little.

"So, Der Jagdhund, now that your English is perfect, I guess you wont need to come here every single night anymore." She smiled, changing the subject so Hound wouldn't have to feel bad anymore.

"Can't I keep coming simply for the good company?" The frown quickly changed to a smile. He couldn't tell her the real reason. She smelled of evil, or rather, the thing growing inside of her. It reeked of death, and chaos, but only he seemed to smell it. Perhaps it was his animal like instincts honed from years in the wild, he knew it was unnatural, he knew it had to be killed, removed from this world.

"Well it certainly won't be for the coffee!" Jessie said with a laugh.

"I heard that!" Yelled the old man by the fryer.

"Oh Shush Frank!" She yelled back. "Oh my god!" She suddenly freaked as one of the waitress came up from behind her and placed a birthday cake on the table.

The woman was the oldest waitress, and wed to Frank, she was Mary, a kind and gentle person. "Happy Birthday dear!" All the other employees gathered around and began to sing to Jessie. Hound felt awkward, but joined in. When they were done, she blew out the candles and thanked everyone, blushing madly.

One of the waitress took a group photo and cake was served out, it was a great night...

~~~

Hound arrived the next night, like clock work, exactly at 9. But something was wrong, Jessie wasn't working, but she was scheduled too. "Where's Jessie?" He asked Frank, taking a seat at the bar.

"Didn't show up. No Call. Probably feeling sick from the baby. Mary went to go check up on her a few minutes ago." He grumbled, wiping the counter with his cloth.

"I hope it's nothing..." Hound stood up and left.

~~~

The following night, police were in the Diner, talking with the owners, Mary and Frank. "So no one has seen her for over 24 hours?" The one officer asked.

"Correct." They both said in unison.

"Anything strange about her behaviour, suspicious people hanging around her?" The officer continued to ask, making notes as he talked.

"There has been this strange customer taking an unusual interest in her." Mary explained, "He has been coming every night she works, same time, stays for 3 hours, and leaves. They talk, a lot. She's so sweet, Jessie will talk to anyone. He always carries that green duffel bag around, and I swear, once or twice, I thought I saw a large knife tucked under his jacket."

"Can you give me a description?" The officer asked, and he was immediately met with a Polaroid photo.

"That's him, the one in the green." Growled Frank, holding the picture from the birthday cake scene two days ago.

"And that's him too!" Mary pointed behind the officers, Hound was approaching the Diner once again like clock work. The officers moved to intercept him, and he took off with out hesitation. The police began to run out the doors, but he was gone before they could even get outside.

~~~


Hound stood inside an apartment room, the door busted wide open. He carefully walked around the room, there were signs of a struggle, and the room was filled with the recent stench of evil, and it came from multiple sources. He could tell Jessie had put up a futile fight, and she had been carried out the fire escape.

Yet Hound was a fraction of a second too late. Just as he was going out the window, the police arrived, hand guns at the ready. "Freeze!" They shouted, and a split second later, as hound continued to leave, they opened fire. Hound shrugged off the pain of the three slugs in his left shoulder as he ascended the fire escape, his amazing agility allowing him to move much faster than the cops in hot pursuit. They arrived at the roof, and saw him, he was already on the next building, running at full speed.

A helicopter in the distance, veered sharply in their direction, a helicopter on routine patrol was now being diverted at the officer's request. Hound reached into his duffel bag and pulled out the quiver, hooking it to his back as the Helicopter moved in range. It's search light scanning the roof tops. In moments it found Hound, who had an arrow at the ready. He released it destroying the search light, and as the sparks and glass flew from the damaged light, Hound took off again, hoping to loose the police.

MEANWHILE

Jayron sat down on his hotel bed, before lying down on it and sighing. It had been a very busy week for him. Resently, Jayron Farham had landed himself a job as a Fundraser for the NSPCC. (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) He had come to the united states to spread the word about the charity over seas. He'd been on the streets of Los Angeles that day, handing out flyers, and showing some of the NSPCC's adverts. The ad that had alerted many to the cause was one of a child showing his mother a painting he had made for her, before said mother destroying it and shouting abuse at the child. While that ad had helped to et allot of cash, Jayron felt a twinge of guilt for the people who would now most likley be kept awake all night be the image.

It was all worth it, he reminded himself, if he could give back to the world, after he'd taken so much away from it.

With nothing much else to do except MAYBE go down to the buffet and have something to eat, (he wasn't really hungry though) Jayron turned on the tv and turned over to the news channel. He had been following the whole ''missing waitress'' story for a while now. It made him disgusted and yet somewhat curious that someone would want to kidnap someone who was pregnant with a child. Jayron had tried not to jump to conclusions, but kidnap SEEMED to be the logical choice at the moment. He had resisted the urge to drink some of his Bubbleshock Formula and turn into his alter ego bubbleshock just in case "Jessie" as she was called showed up after having pains from the pregnancy.

As jayron turned on the tv, he saw the live report. A strange looking man with the speed of a race dog, was escaping from the plice, after he had been spotted at the apartment of the waitress. It seemed that the cops suspected him of being the kidnapper, returning the the scene of the crime as it were.

Jayron wasn't too sure if this guy HAD infact been the kidnapper, but one thing was for sure. he was about to find out very soon. Looking through his luggage, he soon found what he needed. He opened a suitcase that he had somehow gotten past security labled ''fragile''. Inside of it were about 50 to 61 viles of Bubbleshock formula.

Picking one out, Jayron pulled out the cork, opened his mouth and drank half of the vile's contents. there was a was a bright orange flash of light, (good thing he'd kept the curtains shut) and within almost not time at all, Jayron Farham had transformed, canisters and all, into Bubbleshock, superhero and master of electric bubbles.

Ahh, thats better. Nothing like a good swig of the orange stuff to get you in the heroic mood. Question now is, how do i get out of this hotel without being seen?

After a while, Bubbleshock made his mind up. going to the hotel window, he saw there was an alley at the bottom. Quick as a flash, Bubbleshock produced a ladder leading right down into the alley. Most people touching it would have been tasered upon contact, but Jayron ALWAYS became amune to the shocks of his own bubbles after drinking the formula.

Climbing out of the window, Jayron slid all the way down the ladder, and into the alley. Then, he ran off into the darkened streets of L.A., in search of the framed man.

BlackOut flew gracefully through the night sky. He pulled of his masked midflight, he felt it was safe to allow his head to breath since the sun had set long ago. He felt the cool night air rush over he features and through his hair. It had been far from a quiet night but just for a moment it was nice to relax as he streaked over the city skyline. He was on his way to check out a tip he had picked up earlier. A young pregnant woman had gone missing. Black figured he could give finding he a shot. His first stop was he apartment, he assumed the police would have the place locked up tight so he would have to sneak in from a window or something.

Black slid through the air looking for the building that the woman had lived in. “I should be around here somewhere" he mumbled to himself. He scanned the towering brick structures that stood below him, looking for a certain one was a task in itself. “There” he said spotting the building and quickly setting himself down on a building that was on the other side of the street. His feet landed silently on the cold stone ledge of the building’s roof. Black scanned the building’s windows looking counting the rows and locating her apartment quickly.

The windows were illuminated from the inside and he could clearly see a shadow moving around inside. Someone was in there already inside the apartment. Black looked down to the street he saw a squad car parked unceremoniously outside the building . “Police” he moaned under his breath. He decided it would be best to wait for the cops to leave before he examined the apartment himself. Historically the police did not like when he interfered with their cases and he decided that today was not the day to test them. Black sat still waiting for his pals in blue to exit the apartment so he could take a look. He watched the window the original shadow was now joined by two more silhouettes. The arrival of the new figures was then promptly followed by gunfire, and a man emerging from the building onto the fire escape and then jumping to the next building running at a full sprint from the building.

Black watched the action for a second seeing the police stepping out onto the fire escape and pointing their guns for a moment. One of the officers activated the radio on his shoulder while the other put off a few more futile shots at the figure who had already put a building and a half between himself and the police. Black stood up and pulled his mask over his head, he had to see what the hell was going on. Was the man the one who had abducted the woman, did he return to the scene of the crime to cover his tracks. Or was the man just a hero like himself trying to help out when the police jumped to a conclusion and opened fire. Or… Black was stopped mid thought by the roar of a police chopper that roared pasted him. The choppers searchlight found the man quickly illuminating him as he tried to make his escape. The man then reached pulled something out from behind his back and aimed it at the helicopter, and just like that the searchlight was out.

Black took this as his queue leaping forward off the buildings ledge and flying toward the man. The man was still sprinting across the rooftops but Black managed to catch up with him easily. Pulling up beside the man Black slowed his speed to keep pace with him. Black looked at the man as he continued to run and smiled. “So… should I be trying to stop you or are the police just shooting at innocent people again.”

(Tag, will post later. Most likely on the weekend.)

(Same as Nightkill)

I'm going to continue in 5 hours even if you two don't post.

(Feel free. I will post, but continue on without me for now.)

Alice sighed, staring out towards downtown LA. She was sitting on a lawnchair left by one of the residents of the small apartment building she lived in. "I'm boreddddddd." she muttered, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back. Her mom was at work, homework finished, friends ALL busy... She sighed, taking out her ipod, thanking the maker for wi-fi. "Current news...." she murmered flicking through until a headline caught her eye. "... Missing... Waitress?" she shrugged, opening the page and started to read.

"Wow... she lives pretty close." Alice muttered, looking at the address, pretty close indeed. She sighed slightly, putting the device away, wondering what had posessed her to read the news anyways... ah yes... that's right... BOREDOM. She let out another sigh, standing up and preparing to head back downstairs, when all of a sudden the sounds of shouting was heard, along with police sirens. Alice quickly ran to the edge of the roof, leaning over the railing as she tried to see what was going on. Then, the noises of a helicopter started to approach, and with it, a spotlight. She quickly spotted the figure, who seemed to then shoot something at the spotlight, disabling it.

She growled slightly in annoyance, closing her eyes and extending her "shadow senses" as she now called them. Unfortunately though, they were a bit too far. She kicked the ground, desperately wanting to know what was going on. Right as she was opening her eyes though, she "saw" movement... they were heading her direction. Opening her eyes, she felt them continue to move. "Great... what to do, what to do." she looked around frantically, trying to figure out whether she should interfere with whatever that was going on. Either way though.. she'd better make her dicision quickly... they were moving fast.

"Hero, huh?" Hound asked rhetorically as he glanced the flying man over, not allowing the sudden arrival to break his stride. He sniffed the air, and checked the wind trajectory. The scent was still strong, but beginning to fade. "Missing girl. Big bad ugly things have her. I can find her. We fight. Police Catch up. I am forced to hurt a lot of people. Every second I am delayed, the greater the chance she will die."

Hound suddenly jumped down from a building, landing on a fire escape. He black flipped and landed on the hard cement ground, in a dark alley way. The walls were lined with graffiti, trash was everywhere. The stench was powerful, rotting garbage everywhere, tossed about like someone was trying to make a carpet of garbage. To most normal people, the smell would most likely induce vomiting. Hound hopped the hero tailing him had a strong constitution.

The archer didn't even glance up to see if the hero was there or not. "Hope you didn't have a big lunch." The sirens were fading, it seemed like they were going the wrong way, but it still was possible for a big enough ruckus to bring them right back to Hound.

(Not much, but need to see if you're with or against)

Bubbleshock meanwhile was begining to lose faith. He'd been looking for an hour and no sign of this guy anywhere, If this went on much longer he'd have to go back to the canisters for a refill of his powers. How hard could this guy POSSIBLY be to find? Just then, he heard the sounds of police sirens and hid in an alleyway. He watched as the cars zoomed past his hidey hole. Then, it struck him! The cops had obviously picked up the suspect and were now tracking him down.

Bubbleshock decided that the only way to find the guy, was to follow the police. And the only way to follow the police without running and missing the place where the guy was hiding, was to latch on to a bumoper on one of the cars. Sometimes, to save a life, you have to break a few rules.

Creating a bubble grappling hook and sleigh, Bubbleshock attatched the hook to one of the cars and jumped into the sleigh. After a while, he took to looking on both sides of the street in rapid succession. The way he saw it, he'd have to keep an extremely vigil lookout if there was ANY hope of tracking the suspect and hopefully, finding the waitress.

It all payed off when looking down a dark alley, he saw a man who matched the description on the news to a T. He'd done it! Snapping his fingers, Bubbleshock popped the bubble objects and zoomed to the only exit the alley had.

Sorry to have to do this mate but i'm afraid i'm gonna have to question you about the missing waitress who's apartment you visited not too long ago. I just wanna help to find her.

Black glided through the air alongside of the man who hardly acknowledged his presence. Black watched as who looked to be sniffing the air continued to sprint across the rooftop. Without the help of the spot light the police chopper had lost track of them. He could hear the sirens in the distance but knowing the way the police out here liked to operate, they were most likely chasing shadows. Just then the without turning to him the man spoke. “Missing girl, big bad ugly things have her. I can find her. We fight. Police Catch up. I am forced to hurt a lot of people. Every second I am delayed, the greater the chance she will die." The man grunted at Black just before jumping from the building onto a fire escape and then back flipping down to the alley below.

Black raised his eyebrow watching the man’s display “Now you’re just showing off” he murmured to himself. Black followed the man’s path fling down from the rooftop down to where the man landed. Placing his feet down in what might have been the most godforsaken alleyway in all of Los Angeles. His mask filtered out some of the stench but the smell still almost made him gag. “Well you sound like you genuinely want to find this girl and I’m not getting an evil villain vibe off you, and the only reason I came all the way out here was to help look for this girl, so… I suppose I can help you find her.”

Just as he managed to finish his thought a new person appeared. “Sorry to have to do this mate but I’m afraid i'm gonna have to question you about the missing waitress who's apartment you visited not too long ago. I just wanna help to find her.” Black stared as the man stated his intentions. He had never seen this hero before and wasn’t sure of his power set but he knew that every second the wasted standing here whatever the nasty thing that took the girl was getting farther away.

The sound of sirens could still be heard clearly, so the police were not too far off. “Sooooo” he said looking over to the archer. “What are we going to do about this guy?” He asked as he turned back to the new hero. “If we want to get to looking for this girl without the cops hindering our every move, we have to disappear like now.”

Alice felt them jump into an alley just one building away. She sighed, debating over what to do... "Well... might as well check it out..." Taking a deep breath, she clenched her fists and thrust them forwards, causing a thick clump of darkness to bridge the small, but unjumpable gap between the two buildings. She then opened her fists, moving them facedown. She felt the bridge smooth over, until it was about four feet wide and sturdy enough to support her weight... at least sturdy enough for the crossing anyways.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly inched onto the impromptu bridge, trying no to feel how frickin' FAR the ground was. Finally, the end was near! She quickly jumped quietly on the roof, inching her way towards the other end where the two men were now congregating. She then realized a third men had joined them. She leaned over the roof, trying to eavesdrop on what was happening, unfortunately though, it was too far for her to hear. Quickly making a decision, she tied her bandanna around her mouth and put on her goggles. With that, she started down the fire escape, using her powers to conceal herself from sight. The only signs of her presence were the occasional creaks and nearly silent sound of footsteps descending the fire escape.

"Another hero." Hound grunted with annoyance. He had no idea how much time he had. Hound had limited experience in evil, but he did have some experience. Generally speaking evil liked to eat humans. "I'll cut to the chase. Magic is real. Maybe great heroes use magic. This is fact."

As Hound spoke, he sniffed the air and looked around, a third person had shown up. He spoke louder so the third person could also hear. "I believe what took her is evil. Some sort of demonic being. I don't know the species yet. But I recommend we move quickly. I don't want to imagine what they might do to her, or the unborn child."

For the moment, he chose not to divulge his theory the child was evil, and he really didn't want to go into detail about what kind of terrible things could be done.

Some demons enjoyed skinning humans alive, flipping the skin inside out, then sewing it back on just for the joy of seeing how they react. Some like to decapitate their victim, cut the top of their skull off, and eating the brains with a cup of milk and some brightly coloured marshmallows. What ever their plan for the girl, Hound wasn't going to let it happen.

The third person was close enough now, he could smell her through the garbage. At first he wasn't sure who it was beyond female, but as she got closer he could tell. "Alice, you can come out." He announced loudly, "I know I look different, but it's me, Hound." We waited a moment. After extending his invitation to the third person, he turned to the two heroes. "So, you going to help me smite evil, or are we going to throw down here in the garbage. Choose, the longer we wait, the harder it is to track the kidnapped woman."

Bubbleshock shook his head at the guy. If the woman had a baby inside her, it was even more tramatic for the waitress if the child was harmed along with her. There was no way in hell the hero was going to let that happen. Bubbleshock looked back at Hound. Something about the guys voice sounded like he was telling the pure truth. He was right about anouther thing too. The kidnapped woman would soon be dead meat if they didn't hurry up. He had no choice but to trust this strange man.

OK Buddy, i'm in. Obviously you know the woman well otherwise you wouldn't be in this much of a hurry. Anyone else in too?

Trashed.