The Vigilante Society

Chapter 2: The Sapphire Knight

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock, it was John Bonham's drum solo on Moby Dick. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, I had a sore throat, so I knew it was probably sick. I threw on some sunglasses, and grabbed my blue morning robe. I opened the curtains and it revealed my mansion, my dad was a multi billionaire. But he died of a brain tumor a few years ago. His house and all his company went to me. My mom left me when I was 2 so I don't remember her much. But that's why the money went to me, and not her. I walked out of my bedroom and Into a different one, basically everything was pink, It hurt my eyes, even with the sunglasses. I woke up my daughter, yes my daughter. I'm 24 but I have a 5 year old daughter. I had a kid with my highschool sweetheart, Vanessa, but I dumped her when I caught her cheating on me. My daughter's name is Jessica, she has dirty blonde hair, and her eyes were blue. But they looked green in the sunlight. My dad would always say she had Vanessa's eye, he really liked her. Even though it might be sick to say, it's a good thing he passed before the breakup, it would've ruined him.
"Jessica, get up" I said flatly
"But I don't want toooo" she argued
"You have to go to school."
"but-" I cut her off by dragging her out of bed.
She shouted but laughed.
"Go get ready for school, I'm gonna take a shower"
Once I finished my shower I saw her eating peanut butter toast. I grabbed a bagel and bit into it
"You ready?" I asked
"Don't talk with your mouth full!" She corrected me
"I do what I want, because I'm an adult"
I said smiling
"Oh crap" I said looking at her bus drive by though the window
"Come on get going! You're gonna be late" I said grabbing her back pack as she rushed to get it on. She ran out the door waving at me
"Bye!" She said as she hopped on the bus.
Once she left I went back inside to my room and hopped on my drumset. I played for about an hour or so before I got a call from my friend Jack.
"Hey, Justin" he said to me
"What's up Jack"
He had brown hair that covered his forehead and he always had a goofy smile on.
"I think I got a fight for you, if you're down"
He inherited a small boxing ring from his father. Nothing big, but I happened to be a boxer. So it helps.
"What time is it?" I asked
"An hour?" He said sheepishly
"But your place is an hour away?!"
"I'll be there"
I hung up and dashed to the garage. I slammed a helmet on my head and hopped on my motorcycle. And revved the engine I blasted off with a screech. My mansion was on an island, so I had a tunnel made that connected my garage to the rest of the mainland that I could drive through. I looked at the coordinates Jack gave me, and put it in my GPS. I blasted through the streets. Once I finally arrived at the place I had 10ish minutes until I was up. I looked at my reflection on all of the puddles outside as I walked. I had jet black hair, that covered my forehead and eyebrows. Blue eyes and I was still wearing my sunglasses. With a black trench coat and blue jacket underneath. And I had some black dress pants on. I got there and Jack ushered me in, "You're almost up, go get changed!" He said
He kept talking about other things, but I wasn't paying attention, the only thing I could look at was his new ring. It was purple and I swore it was glowing.
"What's up with the ring?" I asked him.
"...What ring?"
"The ring, on your finger"
He looked down at the ring
"Well... it was a gift and..."
"I don't got time for this right now" I said walking past him to the lockers
I switched into my black and blue boxing outfit and walked out onto the ring. There was maybe 2 or 3 people in the crowd. So I wasn't really afraid. But the guy I was going against may as well have been a wall. He was like twice my size. I looked back at Jack with confusion, and he just gave me a thumbs up.
"In the blue corner, is Justin Jackson!" He announced
Yes, my name is Justin Jackson my dad was a fan of superheroes, so he named me like a superhero. Such as Peter Parker or Clark Kent.
"In the red corner, Demetri, Ivanov!"
He had an evil smile as he cracked his neck. I heard the sound of the bell and the match started. He threw a punch at me instantly. I ducked out of the way but he instantly threw another punch. It hit me, and knocked me off my feet. I got up as Jack counted to 5. And went back to the corner. The bell rang again and Demetri punched at me again, I dodged again and threw a punch. As soon as I hit him, it bounced off of him like I punched a trampoline. He just smiled as I kept punching him. But nothing. He punched me right in the face and started to wail on me. Each hit making a loud crack noise. Hit after hit, I felt myself slip into unconscious, the last thing I heard was Jack yelling at Demetri to get off of me.
I woke up in a hospital bed my eyes were blurred, and my ears were ringing. I slowly sat up and saw Jack sitting in a seat. I was still wearing my boxing outfit minus the gloves. I looked at Jack and muttered.
"What happened?"
"I'd like to say you got beat up winning a match, but you got your teeth kicked in."
"Yeah, I remember now"
I started to stand up then I remembered Jessica
"What time is it!" I shouted at Jack.
"Six?"
"Shit!"
I jumped up and ran all the way to Jack's boxing ring. Changed into my normal clothes, got on my bike and darted off to my house. I got there and slammed open the door, panting. She was sitting in the seat she normally sits in, singing some song, and coloring. I felt a wave of relief wash over me, and fairly fell to the floor and sat, my adrenaline wearing off. I watched her color.
"Did you loose another fight?" She asked me
"How did you know?" I replied
"Your face looks funny again."
"I looked at my reflection with my phone and saw a nice big black eye and bruises all over my face.
"Can we go to the fair?"
"The fair?!" I asked?
"Yeah! Some girls at my school were talking about how much fun they had there"
"...Alright fine, but only because it's Friday" I said pointing at her. And I was met with a big toothy grin.
We both walked to the garage, I gave her, her pink biker helmet with red flowers on the side.
"You ready?" I asked
"Yeah!" She said excitedly
"Let's go." And we blasted off down the tunnel.
I heard her cheers and excited screams, she loved it when she rid on the back of my bike. I added a seatbelt and some mini rails for her, just in case. Once we arrived at the fair, she held my hand and took us to the Ferris Wheel. There was Christmas music and lights blaring from everywhere I could see, A guy in a Santa costume ringing a bell tried to approach me, but I waved him off. We waited in line for about 30 minutes. Then we finally sat down. It was cold since the cool winter air touched the metal.
I sat down, and Jessica sat across from me. The rickety ferris wheel hurled and jerked all the way up, before we stopped at the top with a terrible screech of metal.
"HEY, WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE!" I shouted to the worker operating it.
He had a heavy New York accent, and said to me
"I dunno, it'll be a little bit. The control panels fried"
"Great" I muttered.
"What's wrong?" Jessica said to me nervously
"We might be up here for a while" I said to her.
"Aww" she said as she got out of her seat and sat next to me. Causing our death chamber to lean slightly. I watched as the moon reflected off the water in the distance. Jessica was asleep on my shoulder and I waited for what felt like hours. Just watching. Randomly, I felt the jerk of the machine roaring to life, Jessica got awoken from it and I got startled.
"What's going on?" She said sleepily, rubbing her eyes.
"I think we're finally gonna be able to get off" there was a sprinkle of half cheers from the rest of the people stuck on the ride. All the people in the park were gone, the lights were still on though. But probably not by choice. I checked my phone and saw it said 1:03 am on it.
"Alright, let's go home" I said to her as we hopped off
We walked to the bike, but before i could get on, I heard Jessica scream. I cranked my head around to see what the noise was. And I see her get dragged into and alley by some random man. I jumped off of my seat and chased after the man. But as I entered the alley, I got smacked in the head by something heavy and metal. I fell to the floor and looked at the man. He was decently taller than me and was armed with a Glock of some sort. The floor was dingy and damp, it smelled like urine and there was graffiti all over the walls. The man had a mask, not some basic ski mask. But a neck gator with some holes cut in it for eyes, sunglasses over it, and I could see his brown hair through the top.
"Hey come on man, you don't need the gun"
I tried to say
He was holding my daughter by her collar and wouldn't let go. She was shouting and thrashing
"Jessica, please calm down. I promise get us out of this" I tried to reason with her. But she didn't listen.
"Don't talk to her, talk to me!" The man demanded.
"I know who you are, you're rich. So give me all your cash, and your phone NOW!" He said aiming the gun at me.
"Okay, okay" I said slowly grabbing my wallet and showing it to him.
I grabbed all the cash I had in it and threw it on the floor. When he went to grab it he let go of Jessica. She screamed and ran towards me.
The guy got startled by it, and began to move rashly. I knew this was gonna end badly so I threw a punch at him, I was a boxer so I knew It hurt him. He pointed his gun, and sloppily shot. The bullet whizzed past me, I felt the wind. I clutched my chest expecting to feel the warm blood. But I felt nothing. The man looked horrified and ran off with my cash. I whipped around and saw what happened. My eyes blurred, and my ears were ringing. I saw Jessica on the floor, bleeding. The bullet hit her in the stomach. I dashed over to her and picked her up. I put my hand on her chest and felt her heartbeat. It was slow, and weak. I ran to the motorcycle and put her seatbelt on. And I sped off instantly. Not caring enough to put my helmet on. I raced to the hospital and spilled out onto the floor. I slammed open the doors and shouted
"I NEED A DOCTOR, SHE'S BLEEDING"
The nurses rushed towards me and placed her on a stretcher. I broke down on the floor of the hospital sobbing. After a few minutes one of the nurses managed to convince me to sit down on one of the seats. And waited, and waited. Until one of the doctors approached me.
"Mr Jackson?" She said to me
Her tone was grim. So I shot out of my seat to hear what she was going to say.
"Y-yes? Is she okay?" I said wildly tapping my thumb on my other hand.
"I need you to calm down, and I will tell you everything you need to know" her voice was calm, and reassuring. But her eyes were cold and dead. I stopped tapping my finger and took a deep breath.
"You're daughter... You're daughter, didn't make it"
I just stared.
I couldn't believe what I heard.
So I just stared.
"Sir, if there's anything we can do. I suggest-"
I couldn't pay attention to anything she said, because all I was thinking about, was what I said to her. I told her I'd get her out of it. But I failed. The next few weeks went by in a blur of drunken rage. I drowned out my thoughts in expensive booze. I couldn't even bear to stay for the entire funeral. It was just me and Jack there. The only thing I could think about was getting revenge on the man who killed my daughter. After I finished watching the funeral from a distance I approached Jack
"Hey" I said Coldly
"Hey bud, how're you holding up" he said sympatheticly
"I'm fine. Can you put me in contact with Demetri Ivanov" I asked him quickly
"Hey, people make crazy decisions when going through grie-"
"I don't care, give me the number" I demanded
"...Well, I think I can give it to you"
He gave me his phone number and I called him on my bike.
"Is this Demetri?" I asked
"Yes, who is asking?" He said in a heavy Russian accent
"It's Justin"
"Oh, Justin! I kick snot out of you?" He asked as if I was an old friend
"Yes, you kicked the snot out of me" I repeated sarcasticly
"Okay, well what you need Justin"
"I need you to tell me how you got so strong"
There was a pause before he said anything
"It is all in my genetics!" He said defensively
"Bullshit, I know that wasn't normal, so hurry up and give it up"
His tone quickly quieted and got much more serious. He gave me a phone number and proceeded to say
"Call him, but do NOT under any circumstances tell him I gave you his number."
I wrote the number down on a pen and paper and saved it in my wallet for when I got home.
When I was home I paced my room and thought of what I was doing was worth it. Then I thought about how the man who killed my daughter was roaming free. And I dialed the number.
Another man picked up and somehow had an even heavier accent than Demetri
"Yello, ooh is dis?"
"You're new customer"
He proceeded to have a very loud and long belly laugh
"I do not get more customers. Yoh, must be police"
"Trust me, I'll be willing to pay a lot for whatever you have."
"Ow much we talkin' ear?"
I looked at my wallet and said to him
"More than you've ever been offered before"
The next night I ended up walking out of the most shady building with two Walmart bags filled with blue syringes.
At my house I put the two bags of syringes down on the coffeetable. And stared at them, questioning if I should take them. Eventually I talked myself over and undid my belt. I wrapped the belt tightly around my upper arm and Injected the syringe into my vein. It burned but slowly I felt euphoric, not like drugs. But I felt strong enough to do anything. But then something weird happened. I blacked out, all of a sudden I was outside of my house clutching my side that was gushing blood. My knuckles were bruised and I couldn't breathe through my nose. In my right hand was my drumstick. But it was stained red with what I assumed was blood. I tried to remember what happened as I sewed the cut on my side and put a nasal strip on. The memory didn't come back to me until I fell asleep. Eventually what happened came back to me.
I approached a man wearing the same sunglasses the robber had, he was wearing trashy clothes and was a wannabe thug. I had my hoodup and was also, wearing trashy clothing. The guy was smoking behind a bar.
"When was the last time you were in Rockville" I said to him quickly.
I didn't give him time to reply before I shoved him a couple inches backwards.
"Hey I'm talking to you!" I said
"What the hell!" He shouted at me as he grabbed a gun hiding in his pants
"Is that the gun you used to kill her?"
"You gonna shoot me too?"
I said grabbing the arm he held the gun in, I bent it backwards until he dropped it.
"You like shooting little girls?" I said as I grabbed him by the collar.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" He shouted.
I balled my fist and punched him in the face with a loud crack. I grabbed my drum stick and hit him over the head with it as he was on the floor. He grabbed a knife from his boot and stabbed me in the side. I kicked him in the face. I looked to the side and looked at the gun on the floor. It wasn't the gun. I remember exactly what it looked like, and it wasn't his.
"You're lucky" I said to him and I walked off
I heard the sound of him running and I turned around to see what was happening, as soon as I turned I got punched directly on the nose. Before the guy could do something else, I grabbed him by the throat and said to him
"You try something like that again, and I will jam this drum stick so far up your-"
I woke up, and felt perfectly fine. The syringe seemed to have healed me, with no after effects, no acne, no dilated pupils, nothing. I walked into the living room, and stared at the Walmart bags. And I proceeded to take off my belt. I spent the following week in a syringe induced hysteria. I can't tell you everything, because I don't really know exactly everything that happened. But I can tell you what I remember. I ended up finding him.
I heard the sound of a woman screaming, so I ran towards the alley I heard it from. And I saw him, he was wearing something different but he still has the same mask and glasses. He was standing over a woman and had a knife to her neck. I tackled the man, the woman he was trying to mug ran off and I proceeded to beat him to the floor. I threw off my backpack and slammed it to the side to make it easier to hit him. I hit him and hit him and hit him. Until I heard the loud bang of a gunshot, except this time, he didn't miss. I got sloppy, I didn't realize he grabbed the gun until it was too late. I stopped on a dime and froze, he pushed me off of him and sped off, again. I crawled to my backpack and fumbled to unzip it, I let out a sob of pain as I grabbed a handful of syringes. And ejected them all at once. I know it sounds dumb, but they healed me last time, so I used as many as I could to heal myself. My body spasmed in burning pain. I wriggled and shook my body trying to fight the syrum in my veins. Until, as if nothing happened it all stopped. Instantly. But I didn't feel euphoric anymore. I felt awake, but I felt stronger, faster. I was noticing things I would've never noticed before, in the gutters to my left, there was a leak causing a pattern of water droplets hitting the floor. Above me a flock of birds silently flapped their wings across the sky. I looked at my hoodie and watched as the red blood stain slowly turned blue. The syrum was my blood now. Then I felt a stinging pain in my stomach, I watched as the bullet slowly popped itself out of my stomach, and the wound closed. I hobbled out of the alley and limped home. After that experience I continued searching for my daughters killer, but instead of being reckless I decided to create things to assist my search, I bought Stun batons so I wouldn't have to use my drum sticks. Then I brought some bullet proof plates and created armor. I colored them blue and black, in name of my blue blood I discovered in that alleyway a year ago. I created grapling guns, gliding machine, gadgets and other things to help me protect the people of this city. I may not catch my daughter's killer. But at least I will prevent as many killings as I can.