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Join Date: Jan 2008
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Midnight drops down to street level, blades extended and ready to put up a fight. The Tigress drops down beside him purring with laughter. Her own claws extend from her fingers as she takes the first swing. The feline’s nails and the wrist blades make sparks as they connect. The cat-woman’s nails don’t even break.
“They must be made of some sort of metal” Midnight thinks to himself as he struggles with the Tigress.
She kicks him in the head with one of her catlike paws causing him to see stars. The avenger backs up giving himself some room then fires off one of his grapplers straight at her legs. The cable wraps itself around her legs causing her to lose her balance.
Tigress takes a swipe at the restraints and her claws slice easily through the cable. The vixen bounds quickly away and disappears through a nearby sewer grate. Midnight follows her down into the foul smelling stench that runs beneath the city.
Midnight’s night-vision lenses quickly adjust to the complete darkness. The Tigress is nowhere to be seen. He decides to head down stream as he trudges on through the sludge.
Meanwhile across town Mainframe has managed to round up a few of the mafia’s thugs…
“Where is Franklin Harrier?” he demanded from one of the criminals.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about Frank the Tank. You won’t live long enough to find him” the thug spat in Mark’s face.
The helmet visor of Mainframes armor deflected the bodily fluid as he pulled a syringe from his gadget belt “if you won’t talk on your own this truth serum will make you.”
With that he jabs the needle into the man’s thick neck and pushes the plunger all the way down. The liquid is instantly injected into his bloodstream and within moments his tongue is loosened “Frank is in a safe house in Wayward City while his right-hand man is dismantling the so called Superhuman Defense League.”
Mainframe lets the thug go and activates his rocket thrusters. He takes to the sky, using his built in GPS to locate his partner Midnight all the while calling him on the communicator.
“John we need to return to Wayward City. The thugs say Frank has plans to destroy the League!”
“Okay Mark you go. I have a cat to declaw; I’ll catch up when I’m done.”
Mainframe kicks his rockets into overdrive and turns northeast toward Sentinel Tower. Midnight continues his trek through the sewers on the trail of Tigress.
He locates her as she exits an aqueduct on the right which leads to a park. As Midnight crawls out of the sewer a heavily weighted net dropped over him pinning him to the ground. Several mafia thugs surround him as a man steps forth from the shadows.
“You were right, he was easy to lure” Tigress purred triumphantly toward the Master Manipulator.
“Well yes of course he was” the man says as he levels his homemade acidic pistol at the avenger.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Midnight demands as the man comes further into the light “no it can’t be” he shouts in horror “you’re dead!”
“Yes yes that’s what those fool detectives Stonecipher and Lawrence were supposed to think anyway” the man said scratching his head “they were getting to close to the truth. It was the only way to throw them off my trail.”
“But you were killed by the mob” Midnight screams in agony as the net becomes electrified “I mean you were the chief of police, Jake and Tony worked directly for you. How could you turn on them and on your family?”
“They were pathetic excuses for cops. I’ve been on Frank’s payroll for years. Who do you think helped make sure I made chief? But the detectives found out I had been dealing under the table. They were working hard at getting proof so Frank determined I needed to disappear for awhile. He had me “killed” in order for that to happen.”
As Midnight’s sanity threatened to overwhelm him he screamed again. How could the one person he trusted the most end up becoming like the people he despised? His father’s murder is what prompted him to take this course of action and become a vigilante. Now his father was alive and had been in on his own murder.
“You will pay for betraying your son and the city John Dark Sr.! You will pay” he roared as his blades cut through the netting and he lashed out.
The Tigress jumps in front of John Sr. and takes the blade meant for his throat. As she collapses her body changes from that of were-cat to that of a beautiful young woman while the Master Manipulator his thugs escape. Midnight recognizes her at once, his one time girlfriend Patricia Jenkins.
He cradles her in his arms as he looks up into the sky “why God? Why Trish? What has she done to deserve this?”
Midnight rips off his mask and throws it to the ground. Shock crosses Trish’s almost lifeless face as she brushes her hand across his tear strewn face before passing from this world and into the next.
*for more detail on the relationship of Trish, John Sr. and the two Detectives re-read issue # 1*
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