Blood Obsidian

Issue 37

A brief sense of respite ... - Part 1

Even with the ministrations of Drone's drones, on the Bastion Satellite, it would still be weeks before Kyle could return to action and Caitlyn missed him more than she could say. Of course, once Fear and the rest of the Bastion team members returned from their space adventure, Pho-Boy would return to his partner's side and to Bohemia City. Fighting crime alone was what Caitlyn had to look forward to, anyway.

In the two weeks since the battle at the warehouse, Caitlyn had seen no sign of Fiend, however. She had no illusions that the villain had given up on their questionable course of revenge, but the silence both unsettled Caitlyn and gave her a momentary sense of relief. Fiend was planning something and it couldn't be good.

Sat atop the rusting hulk of Machina's combat suit, she awaited the arrival of the NHPD. They had come to a, kind of, understanding, no doubt due in part to Chief Watson's influence, but they still treated her with suspicion. Machina made it eight super-villains, in somewhat rapid succession, that she had faced recently. She began to wonder if there were no end to them.

"Machina, huh?" Chief Watson popped a piece of gum from the packet, tossing it into his mouth as he leaned down to look inside the cabin of the combat suit. "I thought he'd retired. Good work, kid."

"Any word on Fiend?" She hopped down, seeing the wary eyes of the NHPD officers beyond the cordon. "They've tried to frame me before. Anything odd that could point to me?"

She knew it sounded paranoid, but she had a right to be. She still felt the repercussions at school from the first couple of attempts. With a slow shake of the head, Chief Watson confirmed her fears. Fiend had gone silent, for whatever reason. In the meantime, Caitlyn still had the normal gamut of villains to occupy her time, Machina would not be the last.

In the past few weeks, she had encountered GraveDancer, Equion, Studious Rex, Bellerophon, and others. Her training from Trooper Jane had helped no end, and so had the remote instruction from Kyle, but it was Fiend that occupied her mind more than not. She lifted herself into the air, preparing to leave and return to patrolling.

"Take the win, kid. Doctor Blood would disappear for months before coming back to plague Black Staff. If I know villains, and I do, Fiend'll return when they return. Don't put your life on hold for it." He grimaced as he chewed on the gum, what he called a poor substitute for cigarettes, but healthier. "Hey, Morrison! Thank the young hero for not hospitalising you. Dammit, Joe! You're too old for this!"

"Thank you." The pathetic moan came from inside the combat suit cabin. "I have bills to pay, Jim. Insurance don't cut it no more and ..."

"'And' what?" Watson crouched beside the combat suit, holding up a hand, urging Caitlyn to wait. "Joey? Come on. You were saying?"

"I can't, Jim. I ... are we alone?" The last words came in a whisper and Watson leaned down, closer to the cabin, and nodded. "It's a new guy. Paying big bucks to some of us schmucks to give the new hero a workout. I mean big bucks, ya know? I got bills. Hell, my heart medication alone! Forget about it. That's all I'm saying."

Caitlyn hovered lower, scowling beneath her mask, until she came back into sight of the old man in the combat suit shell. His eyes flickered between Caitlyn and Chief Watson, features turning from panic to anger that the Chief had lied to him. A ring of flaccid hair surrounded a liver-spotted scalp, a nose that looked like the old man had taken to drink and patchwork teeth showed his age, but he had still given Caitlyn a hard time.

"A new guy?" Still hovering, she crouched down beside Watson, fearing the answer to her next question. "Grey skin? Bulging yellow eyes? Laughs at, like, literally nothing? Flies around on some kind of platform?"